How to Train Your Dragon: Genderbent Edition
by WatUCWatIC
Summary: Hiccup is a girl, tired of Berk's scrutiny and yearning to become someone her father would be proud of. Asher yearns for her to like him back. Then she takes down a Night Fury and it all just gets weird. For Asher, the trouble doesn't start until Hiccup starts beating him in dragon training. Oh, there's also this war going on between Vikings and dragons and...yeah, not pretty...
1. Useless Girl Perfect Boy

**Okay. I was inspired. LittleMissWolfie's 'The Village's Boy, Asher' was the very first genderbent HTTYD fanfic I ever read, and I've never been able to accept Astrid's male name as anything other than Asher (Because Aster is for the Easter Bunny).**

**I've been meaning to write a genderbent version of HTTYD, where Asher is in love with Hiccup from the beginning (sorry MissWolfie, may I borrow your idea? Thanks).**

**So I'll write this but the dialogue will not (definitely not) be the same, because I'm doing this from memory.**

**I love Hiccup &amp; Fishlegs friendship, have I ever mentioned that? In the Modern!HTTYD I'm writing (32 pages and still no sign of Hiccup meeting the alien-cat-thing that is actually a dragon cursed to look like a Lilo&amp;Stitch/cat creature. I'm just gonna restart it later, but definitely keeping the Legs and Hiccup are best friends bit.) Fishlegs and him are like secret besties because Stoick owns [all of DreamWorks in a world where DreamWorks characters are all real and interact in the same timeline and universe] and Haddocks often meet with the Ingermans. They like video games... :)**

**But...this story will have to do without it. Dammit.**

**Without further ado, I present my genderbent version of 'How To Train Your Dragon'!**

* * *

_In a village lived a girl._

_That girl was strange._

_She was probably insane._

_She preferred the term crazy, though no one knows why, except maybe her boyfriend._

_This girl has a beast at her side._

_The girl and the beast may as well be soulmates._

_Meet Hiccup, Berk's resident screw-up._

* * *

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the III shared a name with two boys. They were dead however, so her name was currently considered a girl's only. When she grows up and gets married (if she ever gets the chance) she's going to convince her husband to destroy the name Hiccup and let her be the last village runt ever to be seen on Berk.

Then she would be less ashamed of her name.

Currently, however, she was the village runt, as well as screw-up, accident waiting to happen, insane girl and the list went on. Useless was her cousin's favorite.

Also, currently, she was running through the village barely avoiding fists, legs and elbows by the skin of her teeth. All around her, Vikings (big, brute, butt-ugly and brainless depending on who you talked to) ran and yelled.

You see, the island of Berk had a special hobby, as do most Viking civilizations in the archipelago. They hunted dragons.

Or attacked back, because the chief has most definitely not found the dragons' nest, but the dragons sure as Hel have found their village. As well as supplies. And her front door which was probably gone by now, now that she thought about it.

Why did a village that got attacked by dragons frequently have wooden everything, again?

She's not allowed to ponder it as the giant man with the ever stoic posture and resilience lifts her off her feet.

"What are you doing out he- What is she doing out here!?" He looks at the crowd running around him accusingly, as if it was their job to take care of a single girl during a dragon raid.

"I was-"

"Get inside, Hiccup," he shoves her forward brusquely, but it's a gentle as you get with a Viking, especially one called Stoick the Vast.

Rumour had it, he'd killed a dragon when he was a baby. Popped its head out clean! She would always admire such a Viking, a total opposite to her.

She walked into the smith's shop, where Gobber the Belch, her mentor since she was little- littler- was working on a sword.

"About time you showed up! I was beginning to think you'd been carried off!" His voice would forever carry an exclamation mark in each sentence. He had the loudest voice in the archipelago.

"What! Who, me? Nah. No dragon could take...this," Hiccup struggled to show muscle. Satisfied with a tiny lump that appeared as she flexed, she started to work on weapons as well.

"They need toothpicks, don't they?"

She ignored his usual snark, mostly amused.

Hiccup only happened to glance out the window (caught in her usual daydreams. Killing dragons and such) when she saw the teenagers she both admired and loathed.

Well, loathe is a strong word, she thought.

Snotlout, her dear dear bully of a cousin was running ahead, always ready to show the other teenagers up. He carried a bucket of water.

The wonder twins, Tuffnut and Ruffnut, were right behind him, each carrying a bucket of water as well.

Fishlegs, the only person she wasn't afraid to speak to, was behind them, also carrying a bucket. Two, in fact. His mom also made a mean potato pie.

_But, where's_-

There he was.

Asher Hofferson. Perfect in every way. He had two buckets of water as well, but unlike Fishlegs, he didn't let it slow him down. He ran ahead of Snotlout, barely breaking a sweat.

She definitely did not loathe_ him_...

Hiccup let a love-struck sigh escape her lips, leaning out the window as they passed the shop window.

She was immediately pulled back by her mentor.

Okay, _maybe_ she'd meant to escape the shop and not only ogle at Asher, but come on!

"Please Gobber! Give me a chance. Let me get out there! I just need this raid and I'll finally get to catch a break. I'll be considered a hero and hey! I may even get a boyfriend!"

"Hiccup. You can't lift and ax, can't swing a hammer," he lifted a pair of bolas from the counter, "You can't even use one of these!"

Oh no, she was ready for this.

"Yes. But this," Hiccup stepped back and brought forward her newest invention, the Mangler, "will throw it for me!"

"Oh no. Every time you take one of those out-"

"But I fixed it! It-" she patted the device. Big mistake. Turns out, she hadn't fixed it...

"S-Sorry!" She yelled at the fallen Viking.

"See this, this is what I'm talking about."

"Mild calibration issue-"

"Hiccup, if you ever want to be allowed out there, you've gotta stop...this." He lifted his hands towards her.

"You just gestured to all of me," she says. How rude, and what an annoying guy he was, how dare he-

"Exactly. Stop being all of you."

That son of a half-troll!

"Oh, I see. You're taunting me."

"Taunting?"

Nope, he was being completely honest, which only hurt more.

"You, my dear not-uncle Gobber are playing a dangerous game; keeping this much...Viking-ness contained. There will be consequences!"

"I'll take my chances," he deadpanned, dropping a sword in her arms.

She gaped incredulously, before opening her mouth to retort.

He cut her off. "Sword. Sharpened. Now."

Hiccup really hated her job. She glared at her mentor, all the while muttering curses at him and praying for him to wake up with a troll (because they exist, honest!) stealing his left socks.

She continued to daydream about killing dragons, sharpening the sword with ease...

* * *

Asher. That's a great name for a future Viking warrior- no. _Hero!_

Asher Hofferson knew that. He knew he was destined to be a hero. He had to be great and live up to the Hofferson name.

That meant a lot of things for him. Strict schedule, overachieving, maybe a bit of a case of OCD. Of course, no one could blame him for wanting everything in order, could they? Nah.

Asher had wanted to be chief when he was younger, actually. He figured he was the best chance this village had. Snotlout was an idiot, Tuffnut more so, and Fishlegs would never speak to Hiccup at that age.

Hiccup was undesirable at best, but she was the only way to become a chief. More specifically, marrying her was the only way to become a chief.

Of course, he was ten when he'd thought that.

Now, as a fourteen - almost fifteen - year old, he still wanted to become chief.

For completely different reasons...

Asher would never admit it. He would deny it til the depths of Hel's realm. He was not in love with Hiccup Haddock. He was not. He barely noticed her when she wasn't being the usual screw-up.

Then again, she was always being an awfully clumsy screw-up, so no one could blame him for staring every once in a while, right?

No one could blame him for entering the woods every once in awhile to "practice" knowing very well Hiccup had just recently left to draw there.

Okay, he liked her a bit. But he was not in love. She was a disgrace to Vikings! She was thin, weak, disrespectful, insane, clumsy, quiet, but a loudmouth, sarcastic, funny, graceful, cute...

_Shut up!_

Asher, a bit angry at himself for daydreaming on the job, grabbed two buckets of water and started to run ahead. Nothing like extra work to calm his nerves and hide his blush.

He tried to ignore the thin figure looking at him from the smithie's window.

_She's not looking at you, big guy_, he thought almost sorrowfully. Everyone knew Hiccup wanted to get out and conquer a dragon. She probably wanted to help during the raid, but she was stuck in the blacksmith's.

Personally, he was glad Stoick kept her inside where no dragon could harm her.

Another ball of fire struck the house.

Asher maintained his firmness, not letting the constant attack dissuade him. He would continue this for a while.

A few moments later he made his way to get another two buckets of water to calm down the damn house. He avoided a Viking's ax by the skin of his teeth, ducking out of the way.

Gobber.

Automatically, Asher turned to the shop, only to find it empty.

_"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"_

_Oh no._

* * *

Nothing could have described Hiccup's happiness when she heard the crack and dying moan of the dragon she'd just shot at.

A Night Fury, specifically.

_**A NIGHT FURY!**_

"Did anybody see that!?" She looked around, hoping somebody - anybody - had. A growl behind her. She turned slowly to find a giant Monstrous Nightmare staring at her like dinner was served.

"Except for you," she said meekly, before turning on her heels and running because hello! It was a Monstrous Nightmare!

_"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"_

She didn't care that her invention had probably been crushed underneath the dragon; didn't care if she seemed like a coward running away and screaming; didn't even mind the small burn that had reached her elbow. She had to. Get. _Away_!

She slid out of the way of a fire, tripping, but immediately on her feet again because she's running for her life and- oh look! A pole! Boy is she glad she's a freaking runt or else the dragon would- Oh hi sir, how are you!?

She starts running again, only just getting out of its jaw's way before a weapon is thrown at it and a fierce man is upon the beast.

Her dad. Watching as he fought against the terrible creature, she found herself mouthing the words, "Stoick the Vast," because her father was awesome.

Unlike her, but she'd rather focus on the chief of Berk that's saving her life right now.

The fight was over before she even knew it and her father was soon delivering the little homily that broke her ego and maybe even a little of her heart...again.

* * *

Watching the girl you're in love with run for her life is not a pleasant thing. Watching as she barely escapes a dragon's jaws is maddening, so Asher has little choice but to throw his weapon.

Damn. It was his mothers!

But Hiccup got out of it alive and her father was soon battling the dragon. Obviously, Stoick won.

Wait, did he say love? No no no, back up. He didn't. He said the chief's daughter, not 'the girl you're in love with'.

Unless _you're_ in love with her, in which case you better back off.

Asher lets out a breath, walking towards Hiccup before thinking better of it. He takes several steps back the second she says something.

"Okay, but I shot a Night Fury!"

Yeah right. Hiccup was as much clumsy as she was a liar. A bad liar, but still a liar.

They berated for a while - a time Asher used to go get his ax back - before Stoick finally delivered a closing sentence.

"Hiccup, I can't deal with this right now."

"I'm sorry Dad. I can't just stop it. It's- it's in my blood you know? Gotta kill those dragons," she twisted some invisible dragon's neck.

"Hiccup, you are many things. A dragon killer is not one of them."

Hiccup stilled. Asher knew what that meant, and he hated it, but this was Hiccup's battle, her own father! He couldn't intervene and tell Stoick how hurt Hiccup was.

"Gobber, take her home. I've got her mess to take care of."

Hiccup walked forward on her own, staring at her own feet. Gobber caught up to her and patted her roughly, a usual punishment for Hiccup.

Asher, who'd taken a spot behind the teenagers to look at his recovered ax, barely glances up.

* * *

She'd hit it. She'd heard the moan. The Night Fury was dead or would be dead the moment she got to it. She won't let it escape.

She tells this to Gobber, who is annoyingly calm and uninterested in what she says but she doesn't mind.

"I really did hit it."

"Sure you did Hiccup."

"But he never listens."

"It runs in the family."

"And when he does he looks at me like- like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich! 'Excuse me barmaid! I believe you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered and extra large boy with beefy arm; extra guts and glory on the side! This here, this is a talking fishbone!'"

"Hiccup, just because you're a girl-"

"I know, I know. I should be proud of my femininity, sure."

"Good. But you're still looking at it all wrong. It's not so much what you look like; it's what's inside he can't stand."

_Ouch_. Was he serious? He was. "Thank you, for summing that up."

"Hiccup. You've just got to stop trying to be someone you aren't."

Hiccup sighed. "I just want to be one of you guys..." And she entered the burnt door.

Gobber looked at the door a while before muttering something about father/daughter issues and walking away with a sour look on his face.

Hiccup, in turn, ran out the back door.

* * *

Asher took his time to get to the healer's house. It wasn't like it was a serious burn or anything.

Had she even noticed it herself? _Probably not, so yeah. Not serious._

Unless she was trying to be strong and keep it in. Was she actually in pain?

His steps increased in speed.

He barely glanced up at Hiccup after one of her little mistakes, but this time, he'd glanced up to see her elbow bare and red.

_I guess that's what you get for playing with a dragon_, he thought bitterly.

The healer didn't ask much. She didn't even check for burns on him, instead giving him a small container and ushering him out. That was to be expected after a dragon raid where she was at her busiest.

There was a big house on the very top of the hill at one of the highest livable points in Berk. That was the chief's house and in turn, Hiccup's house. Asher made his way there, because Hiccup should be home.

Though she was known for escaping out the back-

-_should_ be home.

He knocked once.

_Gods this was embarrassing..._

Twice.

_Maybe she did get out_.

Three times.

Was she avoiding him? Maybe she didn't like him?

Four...

No answer.

Maybe he should look for her? Out in the very large woods after who knows how long... Hiccup was a speed walker and a fast runner, whether she knew that or not. He'd have no chance catching up.

Instead he sighed and put the container in his pocket. Hiccup was crazy but not stupid. She'd get the elbow checked if it really hurt.

He walked away.

* * *

Hiccup opened her eyes...

and saw nothing.

No dragon. No bola. No _nothing!_

She'd calculated every possible place it could have fallen and even added one here and there just in case. She'd scaled almost every single bit of the woods and come out with nothing!

"The gods hate me," she complained to herself, "Any other Viking loses their mug or knife. Me? Oh no, I manage to lose an entire dragon!"

She slapped a branch out of her way in anger only to receive a blow from it in retaliation.

Loki must be playing with her...

She turned to glare at the treacherous branch before taking a step back in shock. The tree was mangled! Torn apart. It looked like a hurricane had fallen down on the sole plant.

She followed the wreckage and realized it made a trail. It was deep, and must've been made by a fairly big thing going at a fairly fast speed.

Maybe...maybe a Night Fury sized thing going at a falling Night Fury speed?

_Oh please oh please oh please oh please..._

She neared the destination point of the object and found...

The Night Fury!

Startled by the sight - because she is the first Viking to have seen a Night Fury and live, but the living part doesn't count yet and that's too bad - Hiccup hides behind a rock.

She takes a deep shaky breath before bringing up the courage to take out her dagger and scowl like the Viking warrior she should feel like right now. Right now, she feels scared, but maybe the sight of a dead dragon will fix that. It was the dragon she was afraid of after all.

She took a few tentative steps towards it, before realizing it was there and it was real and she'd done it herself!

"Yes! Oh my gosh, this-this fixes everything! I have brought down this mighty beast," she puts a leg on it grinning like the hero she felt like.

Then the thing grumbled, shook and looked at her. She yelped before taking several steps back, shaking like a rabbit.

_Okay, not dead_. But it wouldn't be alive for long...

She took a few more shallow breaths, calming her heart rate before clenching her hand around the dagger and gathering her courage.

"I'm gonna kill you dragon," she tried to make her voice as menacing as possible despite the shaking, "I'm gonna- I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father," because that didn't sound gruesome at all, but she was a Viking and she wasn't supposed to not be gruesome.

Just to prove that, she told it, "I'm a Viking."

Just to prove it further more, she yelled at it, because why the Hel not? This thing had terrorized her village for years and the thought of finally catching it had been her dream for most of those years.

She stared down at the sleek black dragon, getting ready to aim for something vital and it...

It looked at her.

Most dragons would thrash and never give up until they were dead. This one didn't. It didn't even bother to plead, beg or whimper like she'd expected a scared animal to. Not that she could compare this to a sentient being like an animal. This was a dragon...

She readied her dagger once more.

The dragon held her gaze once more, before closing its eyes with a look of resignation. It was prepared to die.

She tried. She tried twice, maybe three times to bring down the dagger and kill it. She wanted to, so bad. She wanted it to end. The teasing, the bullying, the fawning for a guy out of her league, the glares she received from adult Vikings in her daily life and the looks of disappointment every single time her father even glanced at her.

She was willing to do anything.

But not kill. No, she was not willing to kill the dragon. Nobody should feel resigned to death. She couldn't kill the Night Fury.

Hiccup let out a heartbreaking breath, because she had failed. She had failed the village and her father and she was not a dragon killer. Oh gods, what was she then? Every Viking was a dragon killer, so if she wasn't, then what was she?

She walked away, hating the Night Fury more than anything in the world.

Then she took one last glance at the treasure she'd let go before guilt swarmed her.

_That must be painful_, she thought, glancing at the bolas holding the poor creature down. It already looked dead, and she couldn't stand the thought of it dying of starvation or in pain or-

_What is wrong with me?_

"I did this," she finally convinced herself before taking responsibility. She cut the ropes.

_Snip._

_Snip._

_Snip._

And it pounced.

_Ow!_ Some raw skin on her elbow that she hadn't noticed before and her head hit the rock behind her, but she couldn't focus too much on that. The Night Fury was on her, claws digging into her collarbone and it was glaring down at her with slit eyes.

Green _green_ eyes that made her realize this thing had eyes and only living things had eyes so she'd been about to kill a living thing and no matter what, a living thing was born to live and she'd been about to kill it.

The realization struck so deep that along with the knowledge of her betrayal to the village, she couldn't help but think this was it and maybe she deserved this. She was going to die and no one would would know. She was going to die, scared and hyperventilating so hard it hurt, but at least she knew she was going to die.

It took a deep deep breath, and she knew it was going to burn her alive. To a crisp. Bye bye Hiccup. _Please be quick._

**_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_**

It shrieked at her and flew away.

Hiccup stared at the creature - _the terrifying Night Fury, ohmigods and I, alive?_ \- before spluttering out the breaths she been trying to take.

She shook to her core because she'd just barely avoided death, and she really just feels tired now. She wants to go to her safe home and sleep in her safe bed where no dragons will terrorized her and so she stands.

She grabs her dagger, stands, takes three steps and promptly faints.

She did not see that coming.

* * *

**Yess! The first chapter. I have no idea if this was all meant to go together originally, because I wrote this entire story as a oneshot. I'm only just getting to separate it into chapters. Can you guys believe I started this not only because LittleMissWolfie's story was awesome, but because I don't want to finish the Legend of the Boneknapper thing? I'm so lazy that I wrote a whole other story Xd**

**Anyways, this is ony about...35000 words? The entire thing, I mean. The first chapter is only 3573, I think...**

**So, tell me if you like, or something...yeah, or something. **

**I'll do my little chapter naming then. Erm:**

**Chapter Name: Useless Girl Perfect Boy. A comparison of Hiccup and Asher. Hee hee, i used the name. I used The name. heehee...**  
**I was gonna go with Good Morning, but I think I already used it for WYFC, so yeah. It took me hours to come up with the acronym for 'Watching Your Fate Change' :P**

**See ya, I guess**


	2. A Girl's Deal

**Updating in school...using my phone. Gosh this is hard. I think I already edited this though, so it should be fine... If I didn't then I'll be back this afternoon to fix anything I may have missed.**

* * *

Asher hadn't seen Hiccup all day after that. This was the case more often than not, so he didn't let it worry him. The adults were having a meeting in the mead hall, probably discussing the next trip. He couldn't hear anything as of yet, but the moment they agreed on something, they'd burst out into roars and quickly escape to their homes to either prepare for a meal or a trip.

Currently, Asher was watching Snotlout flex his muscle for everyone to see. He was so bored, he actually found it entertaining to watch, if only to complain in his mind.

Maybe he should get his ax sharpened. After not finding Hiccup at her house he'd gone to the woods anyway to check his ax's shape after throwing it at a dragon. His aim was fine, if only a bit strained, but the amount of damage it did didn't meet his requirements anymore.

Yeah, he should take it to Gobber...

A roar came from the inside of the building and they almost jumped. Soon, Vikings were setting out to their homes. Gobber wasn't among them, so Asher figured he'd stayed to speak with Stoick. They were practically best friends (except Vikings didn't have those, so they weren't), so it wasn't surprising.

Tomorrow then.

Instead, the teenager made his way to his father and started talking, because there was some preparing to do and not even a day to do so, so they might as well sharpen some swords.

The adults were taking the trip.

* * *

Hiccup woke up with a dull pain at the back of her head and a healing burn on her elbow. She looked around her, confused.

"Why am I in the woods?" Snotlout had never brought her out to beat up in the woods. He was still a guy, so hitting her would be bad. He usually just teased her by pulling her hair or tripping her, maybe pinching.

So, who had knocked her out and left a giant lump in the back of her head then?

Then, she saw the torn bolas.

_Oh no._

She had let a Night Fury go. She had finally caught a Night Fury - finally finally, oh thank gods she might actually be accepted now! Maybe even Asher would- oops never mind, it's gone - but she had been stupid and soft and she was not a Viking!

What kind of Viking let's the opportunity to kill a Night Fury go!?

Hiccup let out a sigh, trembling. Her collarbone had a few red dots, what had probably been the dragon's claws digging into her.

On the bright side, she wasn't dead.

A bit happier with that, and the fact that she'd probably be the first Viking to ever see a Night Fury up close and live to tell the tale, she grabbed her knife and gingerly made her way home. Maybe the Night Fury was still lurking around?

The thought made her heart rate quicken, but she found she wasn't quite as terrified as she should be.

She'd survived a Nightmare and a Night Fury in one day; maybe it was getting to her head. However, the thought of meeting another Nightmare did frighten her, so she left the thoughts alone and continued to move forward. It was getting dark.

She arrived at the edge of some other part of Berk, where she could see adults preparing to go on a trip. She sighed.

By the time she got home, it was evening. Hiccup opened the door, prepared to sprint upstairs and bury herself in her covers, but stopped short, spotting her father messing with the fire.

_Eep!_

She tiptoed to the stairs and prayed that Stoick wouldn't hear her climb. Of course, her being Hiccup and everything, he did.

"Hiccup."

"D-Dad! Hi I- I didn't see you there," she responded, avoiding eye contact with him.

An awkward silence passed in which Hiccup decided she should fess up to at least being a bad dragon killer and they both spoke.

"I wanted to talk to you about-" "I wanted to talk to you about-"

...

"You go first," Stoick said.

"No no. You go," she responded. He was her father and the chief, so whatever he had to say was probably more important.

He took a deep breath - like it pained him to say it - and said, "You get your wish. I'm signing you up for dragon training."

That would have been fantastic news. Three hours ago. Before she'd failed to kill a Night Fury...

"Oh man, I should've gone first! Y-you see, we know we have a lot of dragon killing Vikings, but do we have enough," she paused before saying, "bread-making Vikings o-or small home-repair-" She would've like the latter, but cooking had never been her forte.

"You'll need this," he handed her a regular ax.

"Dad, I don't want to kill dragons." She gave it back.

"Sure you do-"

"No Dad. Rephrase: I can't kill dragons."

"But you will kill dragons!"

"No, I'm pretty extra sure I won't-"

"It's time, Hiccup."

"Is anything I'm saying getting through to you?"

"Hiccup. If you want to be a Viking, you've got to start by acting like one. Talk like a Viking, Walk like a Viking, Think like a Viking. No more of...this." He held up the ax.

"You just gestured to all of me," she said, hurt more than she would ever let on.

"Deal?"

"This conversation seems pretty one-sided-"

"Deal?!"

Hiccup looked at him. He didn't listen. She knew that. She was fighting a losing battle.

Finally, she sighed and took the ax with both hands. "Deal..."

He seemed to pause for a second before nodding gruffly. "Good. You start tomorrow. I'll be back...probably."

"And I'll be here...maybe..."

And he left.

* * *

Asher entered the arena.

He was here. He was finally here, and he was going to train to become the hero Berk needed. He was finally going to learn to kill dragons!

They were becoming adults...

"This is it," he spoke in a low voice, but loud enough for the rest of the teens to hear him. "There's no turning back."

The others didn't quite see it as he did. For one, they seemed to think this would be a perfect place to mess around in, but who was he to correct them?

"I hope I get some serious burns," Ruffnut chipped in.

"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back," Tuffnut added enthusiastically.

Finally, something they could agree on without sounding stupid. "It's only fun if you get a scar out of it," Asher agreed with the twins.

"Yeah, no kidding, right? Pain. Love it," a familiar sardonic voice came in at the last second. His breath hitched.

"Oh great," Ruffnut said, as if Asher weren't having a heart attack at the moment, "Who let her in?"

In her defense, Hiccup didn't seem too enthusiastic about it either. That was..strange, but before Asher could dwell upon it, Gobber started to roar a welcome at them.

"Let's get started! The recruit who does best in dragon training gets the honor of killing their first dragon in front of the entire village!"

What a prize, indeed! Asher's toes wiggled with excitement inside his boots.

"Hiccup already shot a Night Fury, so does that disqualify her or..." Snotlout asked. The rest laughed, all but Asher whose mood had suddenly dropped.

They walk away to form a line like the good and obedient Vikings they were and await orders, joking and shoving each other along the way.

Well, Fishlegs seemed to be intent on muttering his usual nonsense and Gobber was giving Hiccup a defective pep talk, but otherwise, they were doing just that.

Hiccup only seemed more distraught by whatever Gobber had said, much to Asher's amusement and pity.

_Why'd Stoick suddenly let Hiccup join dragon training anyway_, he wondered. He wasn't worried though. Gobber was here, so she should be safe...

Did she still have that burn? Her shirt was fixed, he could see that but... Asher brought a hand to his pocket, feeling the container with salve in it.

Gobber throws Hiccup into Fishlegs, who carefully puts her back into place. Hiccup smiles at him and probably says thank you, but Asher can't tell because they were too far away from each other while she was so close to him and he was not jealous, thank you very much!

He still strains his ears to listen to whatever they're saying, but ends up regretting it once Gobber speaks again.

"Behind these doors are just a few of the species you'll all learn to fight," he all but yells at them. Asher almost jumped but reconsidered and instead paid attention to their instructor. No time to -not- get jealous.

"The Deadly Nadder!"

Fishlegs whispers.

"The Hideous Zippleback!"

More whispers...

"The Monstrous Nightmare!"

Yet another whisper.

"The Terrible Terror."

Another _goddamned_ whisper. If he said one more thing, Asher was going to-

"Can you stop that!?" Gobber actually did yell, but it was probably just an exasperated sigh in Gobber-Volume.

Fishlegs stood straighter and Asher smirked. Vikings were supposed to be strong and cunning all at once. More brawn than brain, if you please, but just enough brain to be smart.

Fishlegs went beyond that and it was not right. Not Viking. If it weren't for his strength...

"And...the Gronckle."

Fishlegs leans into Hiccup and whispers one more time, a lot more quietly. _It's probably just a dragon fact_, Asher thinks as his hand clenches into a fist.

Gobber's hand reached a lever (the one for the Gronckle's cage) and Snotlout stopped smirking like a bastard.

"Whoa wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first!?"

Hiccup was all too calm with Gobber's answer, but Asher guessed that's what happens when you stayed in the same room as Gobber for twelve hours a day almost everyday.

"I believe on learning on the job."

Then the Gronckle came out and Asher had no more time to think about Hiccup.

"Today is about survival," Gobber said, calmly, but Asher could just feel the adrenaline in his veins pumping him up, "You get hit; you're dead. Quick, what's the first thing you're going to need?"

"A doctor," was Hiccup's adorably scared and snarky comment. _Head in the game, Hofferson!_

"Plus five speed?" Idiot...or the exact opposite...Nerd?

No. Scars were great and all, but they had to avoid getting hit. They were surviving, not yet fighting back, which was disappointing, but made sense at least. They didn't need anything but...

"A shield," he answered firmly, already moving towards the stack of them he'd missed earlier.

"Shields. Go!"

They scrambled to get shields, Asher choosing the first one he touched. He walked back toward the Gronckle, carefully avoiding it, and awaited further instructions, ignoring the commotion everyone else was causing.

Gobber gave none, but Asher's skills (because he won't be modest and deny them) were more than enough as the Gronckle traveled from person to person.

The first two out were the twins, who had been fighting over a shield. Idiots, but they seemed to have enjoyed it.

"Tuffnut, Ruffnut! You're out!"

As the Gronckle ate the ammo Gobber had left out for it, the rest of them gathered to the far side of the area.

It turns out, Gobber was going to offer up some advice after all. "Those things are good for another thing. Noise. Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim."

Surprisingly, they all followed the instructions with out a problem. Even clumsy Hiccup.

"All dragons have a limited amount of shots," Gobber shouted out again, probably adding to the dragon's suffering. Asher almost laughs at that, but instead focuses on the question. Did he know this?

"Six," Snotlout shouted.

"No, five!"

"Yes, five! That's one for each of you," Gobber seemed to be pleased by that fact.

"I really don't think my parents would-" Fishlegs had one second to be glad he was a nerd and another three to discuss the fact that his parents wouldn't approve of this before the shield was blasted out of his hands and he started to run in terror._ Coward._

"Fishlegs, you're out," Gobber informed him. "Hiccup get in there!"

Asher takes a moment to look at Hiccup, whose hiding behind a lot of junk, before Snotlout gets too close and he moves. He will _not_ stand next to that idiot.

Sadly, he's persistent and blocks his view of her, instead talking when there's a dragon on their heels. The idiocy of a Viking boy was never something you struggled to look for when looking at Snotlout.

"So, I'm moving into my parent's basement," Snotlout yells, probably expecting him to care. "You look like you work out, ya know, so maybe-"

Asher moves out of the way just in time to avoid a hit, instead letting Snotlout take it. He almost smiles.

"You're done, Snotlout!"

However, he didn't realize where he'd cartwheeled to until he heard Hiccup's small squeak. He turned to look at her flustered expression before he saw the Gronckle coming at them.

He left her talking mid-sentence (What had she been saying? 'Looks like it's just you and me'?) hoping the shield would take any and all the impact.

"One shot left!"

Fortunately, it did. Unfortunately, Hiccup actually ran after it. She was_ out_! _Why was she not- Oh gods, is that Gronckle chasing her!?_

"Hiccup!"

* * *

Hiccup skids to a stop and is thrown into the wall, cornered by the dragon. She was stupid to have gone after the shield, huh?

She looked at the Gronckle, hoping to find any type of hesitation, but she didn't. The Gronckle wasn't hesitating and wanted to kill her, but oh! No, she was not ready to die! Not like she'd been in the woods! She wasn't ready-

The shot hits above her head, and for a second she thinks the Gronckle had actually felt sorry for her. Then she spots the hook in its mouth and knows Gobber had saved her.

"And that's six," he says, like she wasn't trembling in fear right now.

Gobber insulted the dragon before putting it in its cage and coming back to Hiccup. "Remember, a dragon will always," he pauses for emphasis, "_always_ go for the kill." He pulls her to her feet before turning away.

"Stay after class, Hiccup. I'll take you home." Hiccup can't say she can blame him for thinking she'll faint on the way home. She'd already done it once this week, though she had hit her head against a rock back then.

She did stay after class though, because she was in too much of a daze to not ponder on those words. '_A dragon always always goes for the kill._' The Gronckle certainly hadn't proved him wrong.

However, the Night Fury had. Was the Night Fury special? Well, other than the fact that it was the offspring of lightning and Death...

She was leaning against the wall near the entrance, watching as the teenagers were told to meet up for dinner for a 'class session' that evening. She had to go too.

Finally, the teenagers left. All but Asher, who had approached Gobber with an ax at hand.

Gobber's expression brightened to a mischievous one and he took a look at Asher's ax and at Hiccup. _Oh no_. He was not going to set her up-

"Oh Hiccup!"

_No! No no no no no! This was so embarrassing!_ She could barely hide the look of dread when she approached them with a red face.

"Y-yes?"

"Your dear Not-Uncle Gobber's tired after teaching all of you brats but Asher here needs his ax sharpened. Think you can help?"

And because she's nice like that, she couldn't refuse.

Gobber winked at her before escaping and leaving her alone with Asher. Her. Alone. With Asher.

"Um," she paused for a second, making sure to not look him in the eye. She glanced at him, but he was also looking away. "So, come this way," she finally said, leading the way to the blacksmith's.

Once they got there, she held out her hands for the ax. He carefully gave it to her and, with difficulty, she made it to the sharpening stool.

"Careful," Asher said, "It was my mother's." But he isn't paying her much attention. Instead, he's wondering around her workplace, leaning into her personal black-smithing tools and poking at weapons.

Then he found her room.

"What's this?"

She squealed, terrified by the thought of what her weapons could do to him and what he could do back.

"You're n-not allowed in there! It's...ugh," she sighed quietly. He was already in, looking at all her designs with interest. He seemed to recognize one or two. She tried not to question whether she should be delighted or embarrassed.

The second one seemed more appropriate, so she blushed and looked away, letting him look at all her failures. It wasn't like he hadn't seen every single one of them in action before already...

"Do any of these work?" He asked, as if he hadn't seen them fail already.

"You've seen most of them," she said, "You tell me."

He stayed silent for a moment, a moment in which she dreaded he would tease her or laugh and poke at her or just something very bad that would make her regret not being able to stop liking him.

Instead, he changed the subject.

"So, your dad let you join dragon training, huh?"

"Well, it's either this or exile so," she joked, letting herself cool off in front of her long-time crush. He didn't seem quite as amused.

"What!?"

Hiccup paused, flinching at the almost-yell. _Why'd he, oh...oh oh!_

"I'm kidding," she offered him a half-hearted smile, shrugging her shoulders because she couldn't hold out her hands.

He seemed off, but that was probably his usual high-strungness... Was that a word? She could make it a- no, she wasn't popular enough. She got back to sharpening the ax, before realizing she probably should stop or she'd really break it.

The wheel stopped, and she looked at Asher's ax for a second, biting her lip. Finally, she decided she wasn't afraid and would really do it.

Because_ 'why didn't you?'_

* * *

"I'm done," Hiccup finally said in a strangled voice. He looked over to her to see she'd stopped the sharpening wheel and had his ax leaning on it. She was staring at it, pondering over something.

Her lip was caught under her front teeth - adorably big compared to the rest of them - but she didn't seem to notice.

He walked over and took his ax, hoping his expression wasn't too anxious, or his face too red. The only thing between them was his ax... He could lean in, just a few inches...

"How's your elbow," he finally decided to ask, taking the safer route.

"Yeah, fine. See you, Asher!" She said, before running out the door in a sudden hurry. He doubted Hiccup had even heard his question.

But she'd said his name and he was rather content with that.

When Snotlout called out to him, he wasn't quite as annoyed as usual and didn't even notice when Ruffnut commented on his "dopey smile".

* * *

**Okay, so I'll avoid a large final AN thing.**

**Chapter name: Cut me some slack. I'll come back this afternoon to fix it. Be glad I updated during lunch on my PHONE! This sucks.**

**Taking a break from government homework, so I'll update now. The real chapter name should be... *drumroll*...I actually have no idea. Lemme do a quick read...yep yep, uh-huh...Kay.**

**Chapter name: A Girl's Deal. Yeah, that works. Deals with father and daughter. I read this fanfiction on Stoick raising Hiccup (boy, thank you very much) alone and how the 'deals' came to be. I have to say, it was done perfectly. Great story Duchess Delanie. 'Disasters in Childbearing' was wonderful^^**

**See ya, I guess...**


	3. A Girl's Solution to Life

**So you want somethin new, eh? Sorry to disappoint. Asher is in love with Hiccup. There's that deleted scene I decided to add/change. A special surprise at the very end. A cookie for whoever points out a funny detail I added in the entire story. Otherwise, no**** diff. What diff would anyone want!? HTTTYD is perfect as it is. Sorry.**

* * *

She spent a while trying to trace the Night Fury. It wasn't quite as hard to find the original landing spot a second time, but trying to find the same dragon that had flown away?

She should really consider herself lucky to have seen a Night Fury once and live to tell the tale, whether anyone believed her or not. It was kind of like Gobber and most of his dragon stories. Very few actually seem likely.

She'll never doubt Gobber again.

_Seriously!_

At least she's one of the few in the village who actually believes in trolls!

So why hadn't she seen one already!?

And why can't she find that stupid Night Fury!?

"Ugh, this was dumb," she finally said when she reached a certain distance. Hiccup turned around, ready to leave and accept defeat when she noticed something.

She was at the edge of something.

For some reason, Hiccup was enticed. She walked over and found one of the most beautiful places she's ever seen. Then again, she's was quite limited to both life and travel, but Berk was known for its beautiful sceneries.

The place was picturesque, with dirt and grass in all the right places. It was a cove, surrounded by high rocks that she could never climb...Or maybe she could; she was rather good at climbing.

She stepped through a small entrance, made perfectly for her. She reached for her journal when something slick, black and shiny caught her attention.

Hiccup grabbed it, turning it around. A scale?

It kind of reminded her of the-

_**AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!**_

The shriek was familiar, but not in the sense of something she'd heard her whole life. No, she'd never heard a Night Fury's growl, though most of the village thought they had.

A Night Fury's growl was life-threatening, heat-stopping, horrifying and made her heart jump. As a matter of fact, it made_ her_ jump.

She fell back, avoiding the Night Fury's claws by the skin of her teeth. For a second - one terrifying second in which she could only hear the Fury's loud roar the first time they'd met, only feel the claws on her collarbone and the pain at the back of her head - she thought it had found her. Maybe it had realized she should die after all.

But the thought was pushed back as it fell back down.

The dragon continued to roar, this time sounding more distressed. She realized it had sounded distressed this entire time, not threatening like back in the woods.

She climbed forward, biting her lip in anticipation. She wanted to get a closer look at this dragon. She wanted to- to-

Hiccup wanted to draw this beast.

Quickly, her hands moved on their own, taking out the brown book inside her vest. Inside lay her pencil, which she immediately made a grab for and started.

She started to draw the dragon.

It moved, very quickly, but slower than she'd imagined. For a moment, he paused. She held her breath.

_BOOM!_

_BOOM!_

Frustration took its clear appearance as he let out bolt after another.

Eventually, he calmed down enough to start trying to fish. "Trying" being the key word.

The small pause in activity gave Hiccup a better look at the Night Fury, which she took to her advantage. A blurry tail was erased from her sketch, which was otherwise clean and accurate enough.

_How odd..._

"Why won't you just...fly away?" Hiccup asked, narrowing her eyes in wonder as the dragon struggled to get his meal.

_Must be hungry..._

As a matter of fact, she was rather hungry herself...

And Gobber was going to scold her if she didn't leave for dinner soon...

_Crap! Gobber! Dinner!_ She'd completely forgotten!

Quickly, she tried to shut her book closed and got up to put it back in her vest. Unfortunately, her pencil fell out.

_CLACK...Clack...clack..._

Hiccup gulped, feeling her heart start pounding erratically and her blood leave her face.

The Night Fury turned.

She couldn't look away. She tried various times to look away, to stop looking and run away but-

But those eyes were just so green that she could see them from all the way up here, and she looked at them and remembered that she had green eyes too and maybe he'd looked just as resigned as she'd been when he was about to kill her and-

Oh my _gods_, was she calling it _"him"_ now!? _No! NONONONO!_

She had to leave. She had to leave right now.

Eventually, Hiccup did turn away and walked out of the cove. Mostly because lightning struck and a drop of water reminded her yet again that she was late for Gobber's dinner.

* * *

Asher's dopey smile - which he accepted, eventually, _was_ on his face - faded out at some point between Snotlout's comments and the twins' idiocy as well as Fishlegs' constant dragon facts.

It was such an annoyance to be a teenager. Maybe he should hang out around Hiccup more often, if not for dating then why not for intelligent - or dumb in Fishlegs' case - conversation.

He was glad when Gobber finally arrived at the table they were seated at.

"Where's Hiccup?" the smith asked.

Asher was kind of hoping he'd have brought her, so the disappointment he felt when Gobber came empty-handed was rather inevitable.

Not that he was that excited for her presence during dinner...

Gobber started discussing that day's training, not caring about Hiccup's absence at all. Not even when lightning struck and it started pouring outside.

Asher's eyes flickered constantly toward the door. How could Gobber not be worried for Hiccup right now!? What if she got sick? What if she was actually hurt and couldn't get there? Surely she wasn't avoiding this, because she'd practically begged for dragon training since she was small!

"Can anyone tell me where Asher went wrong today during training?"

Nobody could find an answer, so Asher decided to say it instead. Was no one seriously brave enough to point out his mistakes? He wasn't perfect, as much as he tried.

"I messed up my somersault. It was sloppy and threw my reverse tumble."

"Yeah, we noticed," Tuffnut rolled his eyes.

"No no, it was great! It was totally...Asher," said the kiss-up.

"He's right," Gobber scolded, "You've got to be tough on yourselves."

Asher smirked, ignoring the slam the door had given the moment Gobber had finished his sentence.

"Where did Hiccup go wrong in the ring?" Gobber asked.

Asher closed his eyes to envision Hiccup's perfect clumsiness, wanting to ask where she didn't go wrong instead.

"She showed up," Tuffnut says.

"She didn't get eaten," Ruffnut follows promptly.

Asher wanted to roll his closed eyes, but the answer _was_ rather important.

"She's never where she should be," he said with disapproval.

The teens' snickering finally forced him to open his eyes to glare at them, but he caught sight of a strand of Hiccup's short brown hair and immediately turned. She looked glum, looking at her food instead of Gobber.

She sat at the table next to them.

Which made Asher feel _horrible_. She'd heard his criticism and now she was sad and it was all _his_ fault! No wonder the twins were taking jabs at her! She was right there and-

"You need to live and breathe this," a loud thump forced Asher to look away from Hiccup. Gobber had dropped a large and familiar book. "The dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of."

Gobber promptly left after that, leaving the idiots and nerd to start discussing. The idiots left and the nerd followed, still spewing off dragon facts like crazy.

Asher had already read it. He was nothing if not ahead of class.

Asher finished eating and stood up.

"So, I guess we'll share?" Hiccup sounded nervous and glum. She was also wet. Gods he hoped she didn't catch a cold. He looked at her once, but she refused to meet his eyes.

_Of course;_ he'd been a jerk to her only a second ago. He wasn't willing to look her in the eye either.

"I've read it," Asher replied, turning away and walking out the mead hall.

"Oh. Wow. All mine then," Hiccup had said, and it might have been fake, but maybe she was actually excited to have a book all to herself...

* * *

Hiccup arrived just in time to see Gobber leave. And early enough for him to criticize her too!

All in all, she thinks her timing was great. You weren't a Hiccup until your own sixth sense or whatever started working against you.

Asher's comment had also hurt, but he was Asher. And he would always be cold, so hopefully she shouldn't take that_ too_ personally.

And she hadn't until she'd asked him if he wanted to read the book together and he'd answered by leaving.

"I've read it," he said, looking away and walking out in that same rigid posture. Gosh, did his shoulders and spine not get tired of that!?

She could have complained more, but could honestly not think beyond the loud slam the door had caused that shook even her. Then again, she was rather easy to shake.

Hiccup stayed there for a while, eyeing the book as she ate. Eventually, she dried out. It was warm inside the mead hall, and she was reluctant to go home. She might as well look through the dragon manual.

She wasn't particularly interested in the Night Fury, what are you talking about!?

Hiccup opened the large book, taking in the first page with as much interest as she could.

"'Dragon classifications. Strike. Fear. Mystery...'"

The only words that would actually stay stuck in her head for maybe the rest of the week were the various ways to kill a human and, "Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight."

_Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight._

The ways dragons could kill a human - _burning, turning them inside out, choking, burying_ \- were horrifying. She would admit that they were _extremely dangerous_, but..._kill on sight_?

What would they do to the Night Fury the moment they found him? It. The moment they found _it_.

Finally, she arrived to the page labeled 'Mystery class'.

The Night Fury was next, but there were only two paragraphs.

"'Speed; unknown. Size; unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and Death itself,

"Never engage this dragon. Your only chance is to hide and pray it does not find you.'"

Unknown and dangerous. No '_kill on sight_', just a '_hide and pray_'.

Hiccup bit her lip, taking out her sketchbook and ripping out a page. The page with the Night Fury sketch on it. Vikings knew close to nothing about the Night Fury, but she had faced him and survived. She could at least show them_ this_ dragon wasn't dangerous.

* * *

_In the sea, there is a nest._

_The nest is full of giant reptiles with wings._

_The large man is looking for this nest._

_The moment he finds it, he'll kill them all._

_So far, he's only gotten close enough to smell._

_Helheim's gate is up ahead._

_Prepare yourselves Vikings._

* * *

**_Awesomeness! On my phone again. This is a fun challenge. _**

**_Chapter name: A Girl's Solution to Life_**

**_See ya, I guess_**


	4. They Touch!

**You guys were more excited about the watching the movie one. Understandable...**

* * *

Asher entered the ring, ready to take on the world. He had not been ready to take on Hiccup's lack of self-preservation in the presence of the Deadly Nadder.

They'd entered the ring alright. The awkwardness from yesterday was gone and the maze in front of them looked intriguing at least.

They each picked up a shield, but Hiccup refrained from choosing a weapon. Too heavy for her...

"Today is about attack," Gobber yelled from above them, and Hiccup blushed, looking away. He was outside the ring, which didn't make Asher feel any safer, but he wasn't one to complain, "Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter."

Asher knew this would be his favorite class.

Until he spotted Hiccup under Gobber, talking like they were at home or in the blacksmith's. About _Night Furies_ no less!

"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods," Fishlegs yelled from somewhere. Hiccup snorted.

The twins started a scuffle with the Nadder somewhere out of sight, causing Hiccup to cringe and Gobber to chuckle out a "funny" little dragon fact. "Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much."

Hiccup started to ask about Night Furies again, receiving the same information everyone in the village got. _Nobody had ever met one and lived to tell the tale_.

"What are we looking at," Snotlout's sudden whisper made Asher jump. Honestly, he'd been looking at Hiccup for a while...

"Nothing," he muttered before cocking his head at the sound of light feet - definitely not the twins or Fishlegs. "Hiccup!" He whispered, catching her attention.

The Nadder appears just as Hiccup hides herself. _Nice_. Maybe he should show off-

Snotlout grabbed his ax and threw it aimlessly, missing by a mile. Asher turned to glare, not amused when Snotlout offered him a helpless look and a shrug.

"The sun was in my eyes, Asher! What do you want me to do, block out the Sun? Because I could, it wou-"

"No! I want you to shut up," Asher yells before hopping on a wall. The yell had attracted the dragon's attention, but he'd be damned if he was going to leave his mother's ax there with a Nadder on rampage.

He did manage to get the ax back. But then...

"Hiccup!"

He sees stars for a second before the image of Hiccup under a shield with his ax stuck on it appears in front of him. He was about to ask what had happened until he heard the Nadder. Asher turned to see it rushing towards him.

_No time to think._ Asher grabs his ax, pulling with all his might until it un-wedges itself from the shield below him, and attacks the beast.

Strangely, the shield had come with the ax as well, but at least it still hit.

Asher stares at the Nadder, panting. Gobber compliments him.

Finally, he turns around to glare at Hiccup. "What, is this a joke!? Our parents' war is about to become ours! Figure it out before you end up hurting both parties," he yelled, and stomps away.

The next time he saw her acting stupid in the middle of a dragon attack, he was not hesitating. He will yank her away from battle and lock her in a room.

_Gods_, why was liking her so frustrating!?

* * *

She'd meant to ask Gobber about Night Furies. She hadn't meant to get stuck under Asher's ax and body.

"Ooh, love on the battlefield," Ruffnut called out.

"He could do better," Tuffnut shrugged.

"That's disgusting," Ruffnut yelled, punching her brother on the shoulder. "I'm not gonna go out with Asher!"

Hiccup wasn't too intent on that conversation, considering Asher was still on top of her. And a Nadder was coming straight for them.

Asher started yanking at his ax, at the same time yanking at Hiccup's arm. It was getting painful, so she decided to try speaking, but Asher seemed to be out of it.

He yanked hard - and painfully - enough in the end and ended up taking the entire thing with him. Hiccup squeaked and brought her arm to her, rubbing at it.

_Ouch._

"What, is this a joke!? Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure it out before you end up hurting both parties!"

Hiccup gulped and stared at his back. He walked out brusquely - with the same _damn straight_ back that was starting to tick some part of her - leaving no trace of coming back to apologize for almost pulling her arm right off.

But maybe she deserved that. She was dawdling after all. It was her fault.

Hiccup sighed and stood up.

There'd been a reason for why Night Furies were on her mind. Absolutely no info in the dragon manual and absolutely no info from Gobber. That had to mean no one knew!

It had to mean no one knew that Night Furies weren't like other dragons...

She could prove this then. She could prove it and earn herself _some_ type of title.

That was her new plan then. Save the Night Furies and still make a good impression on Berk.

She remembered various things from yesterday afternoon. One of them was the dragon's failed attempts to catch a fish. She figured a peace offering was due anyway.

What was one fish to a village full of it anyways? So what if winter was coming? This was hers anyway - or her father's more like it, but heredity was still there.

So here she was, throwing a fish through a small entrance she'd found near the bottom of the cove. The sloppy sound it made didn't echo, but it was very loud to her ears.

Nothing happened. _Maybe he already left_, she thought sadly.

Nonetheless, she moved forward. Unfortunately, the shield got stuck and...well, she's no Asher. She had to duck below to enter the cove.

_So much for safety_. It was overrated anyway.

The wet fish was grabbed again. Hiccup moved cautiously, looking everywhere. Sensing she was being looked at, she realized she had looked everywhere but behind her.

Her breath hitched and she stepped away when the black scales of the great and powerful Night Fury appeared from behind a rock. It walked gracefully and stealthy, like a cat.

How could she compare this to a cat, though!? This was a_ Night Fury_! Fast, accurate, quiet, perfect. The perfect killer. What had her plan been again?

_To feed the predator, right!_

_Who was food again?_ The fish! The fish was food! Right!

With a shaky hand, Hiccup lifted the fish to the dragon's face. He sniffed.

The eyes caught Hiccup's attention yet again. Not the wings, or claws or scales. _The eyes. Possibly the only trait a dragon shared with a human_, she thought. _The face._

He flinched and growled, eyes becoming narrower.

Hiccup looked at herself before spotting what had caused the sudden reaction. She still had her dagger. She made a grab for it but he growled again. Stubbornly, she still grabbed it, but dropped it to the ground.

Apparently, that's not enough and she has to throw it in the pond. Too bad...

However, the reaction it got her was so cute that it might have been worth it. It might have been worth a perfectly good dagger to see the Night Fury not leaning over her threateningly.

His pupils widened, and he sat in his hind legs, waiting for her to make a move.

Hiccup makes sure her breaths come slow and even, staying still. When the Night Fury realized she wouldn't make any move, he approached her.

He opens his jaws, leaning in towards the fish.

"Toothless? I could have sworn you had-"

Razor sharp teeth jumped out and snatched the fish out of her hand before she could even pull back, but she still did so in the end, if only to check that her fingers were still there.

"...teeth..."

She never looks away from the dragon, which is why she catches the exact moment he turns to her and closes in with an expectant look.

"Uh," she walks backwards in an awkward fright, "No no, I don't- I-" A rock catches her and she falls down with her back to it. "I don't have anymore."

The dragon stares for a moment before doing the most disgusting thing ever. It throws up a fish and lets it land on her lap.

She wrinkles her nose, backing up against the rock more to avoid it. Looking up, Hiccup catches the Night Fury staring again.

He looks at her, to the fish and back.

_No..._

He licks his lips.

"No," she practically begs in a small voice. The Night Fury is ruthless, however, and never stops staring. Finally, biting her lip, Hiccup picks up the fish and takes hesitant and slow bite.

The Night Fury gulps.

Hiccup tries to gulp, but bile picks up. She manages it the second time before offering the horrible horribly mean dragon a forced smile.

He does the same.

Toothless_ literally_ does the same, _forcing_ a smile on lips that probably weren't made to smile but still managing a goofy expression that showed off his gums.

Entranced, Hiccup scooted closer, leaving the fish aside, and held up a hand.

Toothless hisses and leaves, taking a short trip to a spot near a tree. He shoots red lava towards the ground and lays down to sleep.

Hiccup admits she may have been too giddy for her own good to touch him. She will not, however, regret it.

He finds her seated next to him, but ignores her and blocks her off with a wing. She scoots in and holds up a hand to touch the tail.

Toothless snaps and Hiccup stands up, pretending to have never been there.

The Night Fury moved to a tree and Hiccup eventually sat down at a rock. She picked up a stick and drew.

Toothless' face was recorded in her mind. She'd seen him when she thought he'd kill her, they'd stared at each other for the longest time yesterday, and today they'd done so much more than just stare.

The Night Fury face she drew in the ground was accurate if she did say so herself.

She immediately realized it when the dragon leaned into her. He was looking at her drawing and she tried to avoid looking to keep Toothless comfortable.

His presence left and she turned to find him gnawing at a tree. She stared before he finally managed to bring down the already old trunk. Then she looked away again. Toothless seemed to like his privacy.

Toothless turned his back to her again and Hiccup let herself stare all she wanted as he walked around aimlessly, dragging the stick across the dirt.

He looked at her once and she hurried to look away. He put a little dot in the ground.

Was he drawing _her_?

Toothless finished and left her to critique his art. Slowly, Hiccup stood up to stare at...herself...

It was definitely just a bunch of lines, but...but he'd tried to draw her and that was so human that it was just too amazing to process.

She stepped forward.

**Growl.**

Hiccup looked over at Toothless and at her foot before realizing she'd stepped on a line. Whoops.

She took it off and he corrected his stance to the polite sit.

She stepped on it again.

**Growl.**

She took her foot off.

Toothless sat back down.

She stepped once more.

Toothless actually crouched down, as if ready to pounce and she decided she'd had enough fun.

Hiccup gave Toothless a reassuring smile and stepped over the line. She couldn't continue the smile though, because she found herself in a maze.

The only way to get out was through a dizzying spiral dance, stepping over line after line until...

She stops herself short when warm air touches her back. Toothless snorts and she realized they're very close.

Turning around, Hiccup finds the great and powerful Night Fury looking at her with about as much intrigue as she feels right now.

She tries touching him again, but he growls.

Hiccup is desperate though. She's tired of being afraid of Toothless after all this time. She's seen him be terrifying and she's seen him be friendly. She's heard him roar at her and heard him croon to her. She's felt pain every single time he's touched her though.

She doesn't want to be afraid anymore.

So Hiccup leaves her hand in the air and looks away.

They touch.

Hiccup turns to see Toothless' snout on her hand and gapes in amazement. They were touching.

It seemed like an eternity and a second all at once, but, eventually, the Night Fury snorted and slid away, just as quickly as when she'd first shot him out of the sky.

* * *

**So...on the bus to school... yep.**

**Chapter name: They Touch! A Girl and Dragon's Special Moment**


	5. She Made a Tail!

**Well, Dragonchick101 kinda sorta got it. Hiccup, Asher and the twins are genderbent... I imagine their parents would have still named the female Ruffnut and the male Tuffnut. And I'm sorry for not doing different things like having the forbidden friendship sene be any different from the movie one. Hiccup is still Hiccup, just a bit girlier but what would that have changed with that scene? Mostly, this is to show their different POVs in the fun genderbent way I've been dying to write in.**

**Dragonchick gets the cookie, but I ate half of it. Sorry...**

* * *

Asher did not regret lashing out at Hiccup after training that day. How dare she not pay attention during class!? She could have gotten herself hurt!

But _gods_, does he wish he hadn't left immediately afterwards. Now that he thought about it, that had been rude.

He was glad to see she was well enough to come to the small bonfire Gobber had organized for them that evening on top of a catapult tower.

Hiccup hadn't spoken for anything other than to say, "hi," to Gobber. She wouldn't stop staring at her fish either. That was strange, indeed. Everyone else had chicken.

Gobber skipped the educational part of class dinner entirely and chose to speak of his tales instead.

"And then it looked straight at me and winked! Winked I tell you! Ask Hiccup, she was there," he said, despite the fact that Hiccup had left with her father on a fishing trip only five minutes before the dangerous crab-troll-dragon had appeared at Gobber's door, "Didn't it Hiccup?"

Hiccup seemed to have been startled out of her thoughts, but looked at Gobber with fierce determination, answering, "Definitely."

Gobber had been pleased.

He got to how he'd gotten his limbs amputated at some point near the end.

"And he bit my hand whole with barely a twist! I saw the look on its face! I was delicious. It must've passed the word because it wasn't another month before another one took mah leg!"

Then Fishlegs interrupted the story with a rude thought: "Isn't it weird to think that your hand is inside a dragon!? Like, if you could still control it you could've killed the dragon by crushing its heart or something!" He seemed excited by the idea. Asher's nose scrunched at the thought.

"I swear I'm so angry right now," Snotlout started another strange thought, "I'll avenge your beautiful arm and your beautiful foot! I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight," he said, and for a second, he seemed alright to Asher, "With my face!"

Asher rolled his eyes.

"Uh-uh," Gobber speaks through mouth full of chicken like the true Viking he is, "It's the wings and tails you want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

Asher figured that was true. He didn't quite understand the relation between the tails and flying, but that's not why he was in class. He was training for the what and how, not the why.

Gobber stands and stretches, yawning loudly. He informed them that tomorrow they'd get to the "big boys" and eventually make their way to the Monstrous Nightmare. Who'd get the honor of killing it?

Asher almost grinned at the idea of him being the one to do so.

His eyes strayed to where Hiccup was sitting - an automatic reaction to boredom - when the Ruffnut started showing off her new tattoo. She wasn't there.

Asher stood up to look at the stairs and caught sight of Hiccup's back just as she left.

She'd probably gone to sleep like Gobber had suggested. Maybe she'd take his advice and "figure it out"...Maybe he should have worded that differently...

* * *

The awkwardness she would have felt during Gobber's cook-out meeting with the other teens wasn't there.

She wasn't somber or sad, just out of it. She'd touch him. She'd touched a Night Fury.

Well, the Night Fury touched her. And that just made it all the more amazing! Hiccup had raised her hand and left herself completely vulnerable to the dragon that had plagued both her dreams and nightmares for the last couple of years.

Hiccup had touched the unholy offspring of lightning and Death itself. To her, it just seemed like she'd touched Toothless for the first time ever.

She stared at her fish as Gobber talked, not exactly hungry for more - not after what Toothless made her do that afternoon, yuck.

"Didn't it Hiccup?" Gobber asked her. She had a feeling he was talking about more than just a crab and a horse. She would've normally rolled her eyes and smiled fondly saying "Yes Gobber," then mentioned the part of the story that completely went against it.

Instead, she remembered saying that she'd never doubt Gobber again. She'd found the Night Fury, so she might as well keep her bargain of the deal.

"Definitely," Hiccup answered. What if she'd said no? Would Toothless be gone the next day? Gods, she hoped not.

Toothless was...a very nice dragon. She was willing to get closer to him.

Gobber continued talking throughout her thoughts. It wasn't until Snotlout yelled out a stupid remark that she paid attention again, reluctantly.

"I swear I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful arm and your beautiful foot! I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight," he paused to think of something Viking-worthy and came out with stupidity, "With my face!"

Asher rolled his eyes when Snotlout turned to him for approval.

"Uh-uh," Gobber responds as a matter-of-factly, "It's the wings and tails you want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

Hiccup's eyes widened slightly. Suddenly she was sick.

Toothless had had two tails fins. He'd had them. It wasn't an odd coincidence that she'd had to erase them from her sketch.

She'd taken it.

That was why he was stuck in a cove with nothing to eat but a meager fish that a runt had brought. No way out but up, and that was impossible now.

Hiccup bit her lip as Gobber told them to go to sleep. Tomorrow the dragons would be bigger and badder - Toothless wasn't that big, but apparently he was more than just bad - and they ought to get some sleep.

Hiccup wasn't sleeping tonight. Nope. Hiccup was going to build and hammer and work with leather because Hiccup was building Toothless a new tail.

It was the least she could do after all...that.

* * *

_In a cove, there's a dragon._

_This dragon was crippled._

_He would never fly again._

_The dragon met the girl who crippled him._

_The dragon let her live._

_Green eyes called out to the dark dragon._

_Meet Toothless, the girl's best friend._

* * *

It wasn't until morning that Hiccup finished. The end result was only slightly bigger than the original sketch, which was hopefully good enough. She'd only caught glances of Toothless' tail. He was so protective about it.

She really shouldn't complain. It was probably her fault that he was hesitant to let her touch it. What kind of dumb dragon would willfully let their killer touch them? _Oh, wait..._

She brings an entire basket of fish this time, complete with salmon, cod and even the disgusting eel. She couldn't imagine dragons were picky eater...

She might have stolen a cod for herself, but she was_ hungry_!

"Oh Toothless!" Hiccup was singing when she came into the cove, dragging with her the basket of fish and the prosthetic tail she'd rushed to build that night. She was tired, but not enough to avoid her new favorite dragon. "I brought breakfast!"

It was only slightly surprising that the Night Fury actually responded to the name. She dumped the fish on the ground and watched the dragon begin to sniff at the raw food.

"Ew...Hope you're hungry. I brought some...some Icelandic cod...some salmon...and even a whole smoked eel!"

To her surprise, Toothless immediately stepped away from said eel and screeched like a terrified cat.

"No no no! It's okay," Hiccup hurries to grab the slimy dead creature and throws it away. It lands somewhere on dry ground, "Yeah. Eel's not my favorite either..."

Toothless gave her a warning look before digging in once more. She gingerly moved behind him, assuring him with dumb words and nonsensical reasons. She didn't think Toothless would appreciate her sneaking off to put a foreign object on his man-slaughtered tail.

It took a few tries.

Toothless was definitely a cat. As he ate, his tail swished around happily, never leaving the ground. Maybe he sensed her, maybe he was that happy about food. She leaned towards the latter.

Still, she felt she had to discuss the former with his tail. "No no, it's okay," she told it as it moved away again. Eventually, she was forced to sit on it. Toothless didn't seem to mind. _Good._

Did that mean it didn't hurt when the tail was swiped off clean? Oh boy, she sure hoped so.

"Okay. It's okay," she muttered to herself, adjusting the tail to fit around the Night Fury's. It looked great! "There. Not too bad; it works..."

Then Toothless shot into the air. With Hiccup on his tail. Hiccup was literally tailing Toothless and she could still find it in herself to joke about it.

Don't get her wrong. She was still terrified in a weird sense. Terror of falling made its way to her stomach, but she was more afraid of the tail not working.

Oh gods, what was wrong with her? The wind slapping her face should not feel this good!

"It's working!" She shouts after having to help Toothless with the tail. Sure, it wasn't functioning correctly, but it was _working_! "Yes! I did it!" All she had to fix was th-

Toothless flung her off his tail. _Son of a-_ Toothless _flung her off his tail mid-flight_! _That stupid reptile!_ She fell in the water, but what if she'd landed somewhere in deeper water and couldn't swim?

_Stupid_ stupid_ reptile!_ Why was she so happy then! "Yeah!"

Hiccup raised her arms and jumped cheerfully, watching as karma worked on the Night Fury and, with help from the undiscovered gravity, fell into the pond too.

Toothless got out of the pond, shaking off the cold water. Unfortunately, Hiccup couldn't do that too, so she'd have to wait until later to get dry. Gosh, it was cold!

She gingerly took Toothless' prosthetic tail off, receiving a questioning look from the dragon

'When'd that get there?'

_I'm stealthier than I thought_, Hiccup thought cheerfully._ Or Toothless was hungrier than I'd imagined_, she retaliated guiltily.

Hiccup grabbed the basket and tail, saluting Toothless and walking out with a promise to come back tomorrow.

To her surprise and wonder, Toothless seemed happier than usual with her promise. Hiccup couldn't stop smiling as she made her way home.

* * *

Asher liked to wake up early. It seemed like a cliche for a hard worker like him, but he accepted it willfully.

He hadn't known Hiccup was an early riser as well.

"Asher!" Hiccup squeaked, jumping back before they collided. She was soaking wet despite the clear sky.

"Hiccup? What are you- why are you wet?"

"Huh? Me? I'm not we- no. Yes I am, uh...I fell?"

"Into the sea?" He raised an amused eyebrow, but she just blushed.

"Uh..." Hiccup shivered.

"Aren't you cold?" Asher asked. He made a move to touch her - not in a perverted way, gods! He did have priorities! She took another step back, giving him a goofy, nervous smile.

"Not at all. If you don't mind I'd like to get dry," she said, tightening her grip on whatever she was carrying and a basket.

Asher shrugged. "Go ahead," he said, moving out of the way for her. "Not too heavy?"

Hiccup blushed again. "No!" She started to walk faster. "I can take an empty basket and a piece of leather!"

Asher smiled fondly before continuing his trip to the woods. Hiccup was nothing if not stubborn. Or clumsy. Small. Crazy...Maybe he should stop thinking.

He ignored the trail of water Hiccup had left and walked in the opposite direction. Later, he'd regret not having questioned where'd she'd been.

* * *

**You guys can leave, because I assure you, there is only ONE major difference that'll take place in this fic, other than the gender-switches. It's a difference that I usually would rather not have, but warms my heart despite it all. I'm sure you guys would also like it, but it doesn't come till the very end, or somewhat near it. Also, I'm probably going to improvise in the last few chapters after Stoick discovers Hiccup... I'm grinning so much right now. I usually try to avoid improv, or else I won't finish, but I'm lazy...**

**Chapter Name: She Made a Tail! I'm getting lazy with names. I just wanted to include a pronoun or something to reference gender in every chapter, but the last chapter was a miss. Chapters are going to be around 1000 words from now, except for a few exceptions. My shortest chapter will be 992.**

**...See ya later? Maybe? Perhaps? Are some of you leaving after I said that almost nothing would be different? Did I chase you away? I may actually do a romance one-shot after this to give more insight on whatever happened to the salve Asher never managed to give Hiccup...Maybe.**

**Did I convince you? No? Okay then...Bye.**


	6. A Girl's Guide to Dragon Training

**Longest chapter! Probably...**

**I never understood where Hicca the Hiccup came from. Hiccup is what runts were named, in the book he was called Hiccup the Useless, so I can understand where these come from. Hicca? Not so much... Hicca the Hiccup? Makes sense, I guess, but I'm pretty sure they get their "the blank" name after a certain coming of age or something. Maybe they get called the name enough that it just sticks and they keep it. IDK. **

**Still. Hicca? Sorry if it's confusing.**

* * *

She was dry by the time that morning's training started.

"Today is about teamwork," Gobber yelled. Fishlegs was terrified, and rightly so. "Work together, and you might just survive!"

Gobber put them out in the open in three groups of two. Asher with Tuffnut, Ruffnut with Snotlout and Hiccup with Fishlegs. Gobber's logic had been that the twins could not be together, Hiccup could not be alone with Ruffnut, and Snotlout could not be around Hiccup and Asher.

Also, Fishlegs refused to be alone with the twins...

Today's dragon was the Hideous Zippleback. "A wet head cannot breathe fire! The Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas; the other lights it. Your job is to figure out which is which."

They each had a bucket of water, a great precaution for when a teen wet the wrong head.

Fishlegs was definitely not helping the situation, though.

"Razor sharp serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion. Prefers ambush attacks, crushing it's victims in its-"

"Would you please stop that," Hiccup whispered. "This is creepy enough as it is!"

"Sorry-"

"There!"

_SPLASH!_

"Hey!" Hiccup hears Asher's outraged cry.

Ruffnut makes a comment, Snotlout speaks, Tuffnut and Asher retaliate by attacking. That's the best Hiccup can make of the situation when she can barely hear some of the words over her own nervousness.

There's a synchronized cry and they all quiet down after the distinct sound of another two buckets falling is heard.

Hiccup figures it should be rather comical when Ruffnut runs out yelling, "Oh I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!"

"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits," Fishlegs whispers. Hiccup can't say she hadn't thought the same, in a less nerdy manner. She _can_ say she's the only other teenager in the village who understands percentage, at least.

"Look out!"

* * *

Asher falls to the ground and curses silently._ Damn it all to Hel._ Damn Snotlout for getting him out. _Damn!_

Now it was up to Hiccup and Fishlegs to win this twisted game.

And whose idea was it to team Fishlegs and Hiccup? That was horrible. Why not Asher and Hiccup? He felt the corner of his mouth twitch and his hand clench at the thought...again.

Right now, Fishlegs and Hiccup were alone in the middle of smoke, hidden from everyone's view. They could be doing _anything_!

Okay, they were probably watching out for dragons, not flirting or whatever._ Yeah, whatever..._

The dragon managed to sneak gas in Ruff's eyes, earning the gil a lot of pain, apparently. Then she was pulled down and dragged away. Tuffnut made to help, but he stopped him. Soon, Ruff came back, yelling. "Oh I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!"

A short pause.

"Look out!" Asher's head snapped to the direction Hiccup's voice had come from. The air clears a bit and he sees Fishlegs throw water at one of the Zippleback's heads.

"Oops. Wrong head," he says. The dragon leers and blows, leaving them in another thick mist. Fishlegs runs, leaving Hiccup - small, tiny, defenseless Hiccup - alone.

"Now Hiccup!" Gobber yells with full confidence, but Asher is afraid. Asher is afraid and will run right in there if he has to.

_SPLASH!_

"Oh come on!"

"Run Hiccup!" Asher glances at the girl's mentor, whose covering his eyes and knows he's lost her. Hiccup was dead, or would be in a second. The feeling of his stomach sinking, realizing that the love of his life was definitely dead this time-

"Hiccup!"

"Back," Hiccup's voice comes again. "Get back! Don't make me tell you again!" The air clears around them to reveal Hiccup. Hiccup cornering the dragon back into its cage! "That's right. Back into your cage! Now think about what you've done." The door closes with a slam

Hiccup turns around to them. Asher realizes he's gaping and closes his mouth, but doesn't lead his eyes away.

"So, are we done?" She asks. No one answers, so she continues, "Yep. See ya tomorrow!"

They continue to stare at her even as she leaves. Asher feels his eyes narrow and his mouth forms a sneer. Hiccup was passing. Which was good. But not when she was passing _him_.

What was going on here?

* * *

Hiccup spends the entire night working on a saddle. More leather to work with and a lot more stitching.

Hiccup grins as she works on it, remembering the events of that morning. The faces on the audience's face when she'd frightened that Zippleback into the cage were hilarious!

She should do this more often. Maybe all dragons shared traits, whether Toothless was special or not.

'Afraid of eels | [√]'

Hiccup grins again and begins working on the straps.

The next day, she holds out the finished saddle for Toothless to admire, just as she had last night.

The dragon ran.

"Toothless!" Hiccup runs as well, chasing him down. "Get back here you oversized reptile," she screams, but the dragon doesn't hesitate in speeding up.

"Come on! Toothless!"

The Night Fury doesn't give up until she trips over her own feet. She'd been keeping up with him surprisingly well but was still human, and therefore more fallible that a Night Fury. At least when it came to speed.

Toothless neared her after realizing she'd stopped chasing him and settled down to glare at the running dragon. He crooned.

"No."

Toothless bumped her with his nose, tickling her neck.

"Haha- no! No, Toothless. Stop, that tickles!"

Eventually, she'd managed to feign death and flung the saddle on top of Toothless before he could run away. He grumbled, but kept still as she worked on the straps.

"Oh hush you. I'm doing this for your own good."

It took a few tries to get Toothless to hold still long enough for the straps to stay into place, but finally, Hiccup and Toothless shot into the air.

50 feet in the air. Hiccup was fifty feet in the air with nothing to stop her from falling other than the crippled dragon below her and her own limited skills.

"Yeah!" The tail was working too! It was perfect, now all she had to do was figure out how to turn...

Hiccup pulled the rope on the tail in a manner that she thought would make them turn gently towards the left. Instead, Toothless deviated from her completely and she flew off him in a straight line, landing in the pond.

"Well, that could have gone better," she said, sweeping wet hair off her eyes. She didn't get up despite the cold pond water, instead sulking and pondering.

That night, Hiccup worked on the staying _on top_ of Toothless.

She presented a hook and hinge the next day.

"I have dragon training today," Hiccup said, adjusting a strap on Toothless' saddle.

Toothless gave her a look.

"No, not like this. I have to learn how to fight dragons," she flexed her arms. "I'm tough."

Toothless rolled over, laughing and messing up the saddle.

"Toothless! Okay, no, I'm not tough. Stand up... I'm actually a runt. They all act like I'm a mess, which I'll admit, isn't far from the truth..."

Toothless nudged her with his snout.

"I'm used to it. The worst thing is Asher, though! He's just so stiff and strict! It's annoying. He never smiles and his back must hurt because it's always straight, but he doesn't complain. He's strong, good-looking, not dumb and basically perfect, so it's hard to not like him!"

Toothless snorted.

"Shut up. So what if I like him? I can do that...there," Hiccup pulled on the hinge, testing it to make sure it wouldn't come off. Sturdy enough.

She jumped on top of Toothless, barely faltering when she landed, and called out to him to fly.

Gods, it had to be a sin for the wind to feel so nice! The air was clear and Toothless was going so _fast_. But she couldn't feel anything but the cold wind. It felt so right to be a bad Viking!

She pulled at the tail, but it didn't move. _Huh?_ Hiccup looked over to find that the tail was already laid out flat. Pull. It didn't budge.

She barely manages to land on her feet when Toothless crash-lands into a field of tall grass.

"Toothless!" Hiccup runs the short distance to see if her dragon is alright, only to find him in heaven...

Toothless is wriggling and rolling around in the grass, looking blissful. He seemed high, if Hiccup was being honest, and the fact that he was pushing himself into the grass didn't change her mind.

"What is this stuff?" Hiccup picked up a patch, looking at it closely.

In the end, she named it 'dragon nip'.

* * *

Asher had been dying to get back to training. He'd been impatient for most of yesterday, throwing his ax at the same tree for over an hour.

How had _Hiccup_, of all people, beat him?

But he wasn't going to let himself be jealous. No, not of Hiccup. Just because she managed to become the Zippleback tamer and did something right for once in her life...

He kept his eyes on the Gronckle. It was flying around like a lost bumblebee, looking for flowers in a bare room. Gobber had put obstacles all around the ring for the teenagers to hide behind. Apparently, it was just_ that_ easy to fool a stupid Gronckle.

"It's not stupid," Fishlegs had responded after Tuff's comment. "It's just straightforward."

"It doesn't matter in the end," Asher said, "It's still going to die."

Snotlout and the twins had cracked up at that, but Fishlegs just shrugged and left to find a hiding spot before Gobber let out the Gronckle.

To his surprise, Hiccup huffed and followed him.

Asher sneered at the memory of Hiccup and Fishlegs talking, walking away from them like a happy couple.

His eyes located Fishlegs, who had been hiding a few obstacles away from Hiccup only moments ago. Where _was_ Hiccup? ... Where was the Gronckle? He doubted Hiccup could do what Gobber had instructed them to.

"Grab the head and fling it away! Stay _away_ from the tail!"

Asher turned...and saw Hiccup standing over a fallen Gronckle.

Asher looked around him to see villagers surrounding the arena. _How embarrassing!_ To be beaten by Hiccup of all people! Again!

He strayed from the group as they walked back to have lunch.

_Maybe it was Gobber? Hiccup is bad at a lot of things, but she's great at blacksmithing...Now that Gobber's teaching dragon training, it's her best subject!_

_Maybe-_

Tuffnut ran ahead of him to push Ruffnut out of Hiccup's way and put an arm on her shoulder, complimenting her skills that day.

Snotlout was the only one who saw Asher clench his hand and take a step forward, ready to pounce.

No need. Hiccup left all on her own. "I left my ax back at the ring," she stepped away from Tuffnut's damn arm, "I'll catch up with you guys later."

She stumbled into Asher but quickly excused herself and continued to jog away.

Asher's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Hiccup hadn't brought a weapon to training since day one...

Hiccup didn't come back.

* * *

'Afraid of eels | [√]  
Loves dragon nip | [√]'

It's too late to fly with Toothless, so Hiccup doesn't bring anything with her. She just wants to...hang out.

Was there such a thing for them? Would the Night Fury actually enjoy her company when she wasn't helping him fly again.

Hiccup bit her lip but still walked.

"Hi," she raised a hand nervously. Toothless stared at her, cocking his head at the absence of tools.

"Yeah, it's just me today!"

Toothless snorted and turned away. He started to walk.

Hiccup deflated, bringing her arm down, and bit her lip.

Toothless paused before looking at her with an annoyed glance and indicated she follow.

Hiccup brightened up and ran toward her dragon, skidding across the dirt. "So," she started to speak as if she hadn't been about to cry only a moment ago, "I'm actually passing dragon training!"

'As if,' he seemed to say, rolling his eyes. 'Hiccup? Passing? The day that happens, I'll be able to fly again.'

"It is totally possible. All I needed was this," she raised a hand of dragon nip, which he immediately pounced on.

"Toothless!" Hiccup put her hands in front of her to avoid being hurt, but still ended up with a dragon on her. Her attempts at attacking back were feeble at most, but started to work when she used her nails.

Apparently, Toothless was also part _dog_.

Hiccup giggled, scratching Toothless here and there, making the dragon wriggle in ecstasy. She reached under his chin to scratch some more and...he fell over...

Surprised, Hiccup took a step back. Toothless had a blissful grin (if you could call it that) on his face, and he was breathing, so she hadn't killed the dragon.

She looked at her hands in amazement. Toothless' reactions and the other dragons' had matched so far...what was another addition to the checklist?

'Afraid of eels |[√]  
Loves dragon nip |[√]  
Scratch soft spot | [ ]'

* * *

_The Deadly Nadder..._

_We meet again_, Asher thought, narrowing his eyes in enthusiasm. He could take the Nadder. He'd done it before, he could do it again... Hiccup would not beat him this time!

Gobber gave them no instructions. He immediately released the Nadder on them and stepped aside to watch the magic happen. He'd long forgotten Hiccup's original failure.

Asher gripped his weapon, ready to take the challenge. There were no walls to hide behind now, no obstacles in the way and no option to take a shield. All they had were weapons now.

He was great with weapons. He would not be beaten by her! She could barely hold on to her own mace for gods' sake!

Speaking of which, Hiccup was looking rather awkward herself. Adorable, and Asher's confidence boosted up.

The Nadder began it's attack, and quickly, one by one, the teenagers were put out. Only Asher and Hiccup remained.

_Strange_, Asher thought. Hiccup had barely moved from her spot other than to move away from the Nadder, who'd been ignoring her from the start...

This was his chance!

He moved forward and threw his ax at the dragon's head. It flung away, barely damaging the beast. Asher gritted his teeth at its perseverance and ran after his weapon, forgetting about Hiccup completely.

He got it back not a second too soon. When he turned around, the Nadder was leaning into Hiccup. Tiny defenseless Hiccup who could barely pick up her mace! The mace, which by the way, was on the floor!

Asher let out a war cry and ran forward, ready to attack.

Just a second before he reached it though, the dragon fell to the ground, faint.

Asher stuttered in his step, looking at the dragon before him and then at Hiccup. She stayed in a rigid position, biting her lip and looking back at him awkwardly.

Asher resisted the urge to yell out loud at the top of his lungs, and lowered his ax. He shook a bit, but otherwise walked out the ring just as cool as ever...

_GODS DAMMIT HICCUP!_

* * *

Hiccup let out a breath when Asher walked out. Was he shaking?

_Never mind that_, she thought and shook her head.

'Afraid of eels | [√]  
Loves dragon nip | [√]  
Scratch soft spot | [√]'

Hiccup looked at the Nadder in wonder. If it hadn't paused to sniff her, she would've been dead. It wasn't until Asher had come in yelling like a maniac that she'd remembered to scratch. Why?

To protect it? _No._ Nadders and Night Fury's were totally different. She herself didn't know why...

But...why had it paused to sniff her? Did she smell like dragon now? She brought a hand to her nose. No particular smell emitted from it, other than its usual leather, fire and fish odors.

Maybe she should ask Toothless. Speaking of which, she'd barely had enough time to give him fish that morning! Hiccup should probably hurry and gather her items to practice their flight!

"Do I smell any different to you," she asked her dragon the moment she walked into the cove. He sniffed and shrugged, looking bored of her as ever. The sweetheart...not.

Hiccup rolled her eyes. "I meant 'do I smell like a dragon?'"

Toothless looked offended at that. He sniffed himself and took another long sniff at her. He paused then looked away quickly.

She took that as a yes.

"Darn. My dad can smell dragons a mile away, or so he says...I should take a bath...though the scent did save my life today," she paused to think over the issue, ignoring the panicked dragon's nudges.

'Tell me what happened!'

Hiccup laughed. "It nothing, just dragon training. Nadders must have a good nose, right? No other dragon had smelled you on me before today so they attacked straight on...hmm..."

Toothless looked at her, exasperated. 'Stop making that annoying 'pondering' sound unless you're gonna tell me what you're thinking of!'

Hiccup laughed. "Come on, let's get going. I'm actually hungry today, so I'd like to get to dinner early."

She didn't arrive in Berk again until half the mead hall was filled.

* * *

Hiccup walked through the door quietly. So quietly, in fact, that Asher had missed her completely until everyone else had noticed her.

The ever present murmur of crowds during dinner became an intense roar of appreciation for Hiccup. She was immediately surrounded by men and women (more specifically men, damn them), impeding her to eat.

Tuffnut leaned in a little too close to Hiccup.

Asher slammed down his drink and walked out the mead hall. No one noticed.

He could go a couple of rounds, throwing his ax at Tuffnu- trees. At trees.

* * *

The next day was the same as always. Hiccup fell to her "doom" after having pulled the rope the wrong way. She really needed to get this down, but there were only so many ways to pull a rope.

In the end, Hiccup had to pound the metal clamp back into place. What was the point of it if it still broke in the end? Well, it usually survived till the very end at least. One of these days she was going to get it stuck...

Hiccup smiled at the thought. _One of these days._ It made it sound like she and Toothless would be together forever. Maybe they would!

Hiccup lifted the hammer and heard a_ thump_!

Now that she thought about it, she'd been hearing that for a while...

She turned over to find Toothless looking for something under his paw.

"Toothless?"

She turned around completely, ignoring the way her hammer reflected back the Sun's light as she moved. Toothless, however, jumped again.

_Thump!_

Towards the light...

Hiccup paused to think for a second before busting out in giggles. She moved the hammer again.

_Thump!_

Hiccup fought to stifle the laughter that threatened to take over, ducking behind a rock to control the reflected light. Toothless followed it all the way through.

'Afraid of eels | [√]  
Loves dragon nip | [√]  
Scratch soft spot | [√]  
Attracted to light | [ ]'

* * *

The Terrible Terror sounded like a formidable enemy when Asher first heard its name. They were a rare sight in Berk, so most of the teens had no idea what it looked like.

Asher had been excited to see a new dragon. Everyone had. Even the twins seemed to be just as excited as Fishlegs, and that was strange indeed.

Hiccup seemed to be a bit confident in herself today - something he both loved and loathed. She wasn't smiling, but she somehow still managed to look amused...

Has he ever seen her smile before?

Would she smile if she won the honor to kill the Nightmare?

He should stop getting so many mixed feelings... Hiccup brought up love - he's not afraid to admit it now, thank you very much - and jealousy. Both very new and testy subjects for him...

"Meet the Terrible Terror," Gobber stepped up to a large cage, just as big as the others. He opens...a small hatch at the bottom of the door. No, small was too big for it. Tiny. Miniscule.

Out came the smallest dragon he'd ever seen. He wasn't going to laugh with the twins, but he was willing to silently agree with what Tuffnut had been about to say:

"Ha! It's like the size of my-"

But then, the tiny (Tiny Terror?) dragon attacked him. It was a vicious sight, and the Terror clung on to Tuff's nose like sap to a tree.

The terror suddenly seemed distracted and jumped off, letting Tuffnut run away, screaming about how very much he was hurt. The Terror continued to walk away. Hiccup stepped in the way to lead it to the tiny hatch it'd originally come from, clutching her shield protectively in front of her.

Asher squinted his eyes, trying to catch whatever trick she was using. She _had_ to be using tricks! She was Hiccup!

"Wow, she's better than you ever were," Ruffnut said from behind him. He glared to the side, hoping she got the message. She suddenly got the urge to go help her brother - despite the fact that they love causing each other pain - and left. Asher felt very satisfied.

However, a little more training never hurt.

He clutched his ax and walked out coolly, willing to wait until he got to the forest to yell out curses and throw his ax at trees to vent his anger. Somebody up there probably pitied the poor plants by now...

"Aargh," he growled, throwing the ax at another tree. He grabbed it roughly before throwing it blindly at another tree. It hit the mark.

He was perfect at this, even with his eyes closed and blood boiling.

Why was he not good enough for dragon training?!

_Damn that Nadder. Damn that Nightmare. Damn Tuffnut and Fishlegs. Damn Snotlout. Damn Ruffnut. Damn Gobber. Damn Hiccu-_

"Hiccup?"

Asher paused mid-throw. Hiccup was right in front of him, holding on to something like her life depended on it.

She was staring at him. His face was already flushed, so he wasn't sure what else would happen to his body knowing Hiccup had been watching him rage out.

He wouldn't know what_ her_ reaction was, because she turned around immediately and pretended to not have ever been there. The instant she thought she was out of sight, she started to jog, still clutching the items.

_Hey!_

Asher ran after her, suspicious as ever. Could it be? Was she getting better due to something she did in the woods? Was she training with someone? Cheating?

She disappeared behind a rock. He didn't catch sight of her again.

"Dammit," Asher muttered, hitting the top of the stone with his fist.

What was she doing? Was she with...someone?

He gritted his teeth and walked away, still clenching his hand.

* * *

'Afraid of eels | [√]  
Loves dragon nip | [√]  
Scratch soft spot | [√]  
Attracted to light | [√]'

Hiccup grinned to herself, walking through the woods with Toothless' saddle and the new prosthetic she'd created. With a pedal...for her to control the tail with.

_Goodbye horrible horrible rope!_

"Aargh!" A growl made her jump.

Hiccup looked around. Was there someone there?

_Thut!_

The sound of an ax hitting a tree resounded. Finally, Hiccup remembered to look back - something she'd neglected enough to be attacked by a Nightmare, a Gronckle and almost a Night Fury. When she did, she found Asher.

Her breath caught in her throat, but he had not seen her. She was clear, and had plenty of time to run away before he turned.

But he looked gorgeous...

She doesn't usually think like this. _Really!_ Lately, she'd been looking at Asher's physique less and less too! But right now...

He looked _really_ angry. She suspected that was her fault, but even if it was amusing, she couldn't just let the Terror maul Tuffnut's nose like that!

Was he jealous of her? She'd never known him to be jealous, but she also hadn't known him to be angry either. He was usually so indifferent, like her dad...But hot.

His posture was also off. He usually stood so straight, or showed grace even during a fight. Right now, he was letting himself be sloppy, even with the little flips he kept doing.

She liked this relaxed posture more...

"Hiccup?" Asher had his ax lifted, seemingly about to throw it at her, but his expression just showed surprise. Oh no, had she been standing there long?!

Hiccup did the best thing she could think of. She walked away. She strayed her eyes and pretended to not have noticed him, and as soon as she was out of sight, she began to jog.

She hid behind a giant rock and stood still, clutching the saddle.

"Dammit," she heard someone mutter. Asher had followed her.

He left, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

Of course he was suspicious. She disappeared all the time to fly with Toothless. She had to be more careful.

Hiccup sighed and stood straighter, tightening her hold on the materials. She was going to see Toothless right now to test the new system though. Her father could be back any day now. She didn't have the time to be more careful.

Hiccup entered the cove. It was getting too late to test the device for flight, but she had to check if the new adjustments didn't bother Toothless.

Tomorrow...tomorrow she'd test it, but with a precaution...

* * *

The girl came back that evening with a brand new widget on the saddle. The moment she put it on, however, she stood back and let the dragon waltz on his own.

'How's it feel?'

He moved, already weighed down by the saddle. Toothless couldn't actually tell that the new pedal was there though, so it was fine. "It's good. What's the new thing for?" He asked, cocking his head at the new adjustment.

'Nice, it fits then. That new pedal is supposed to help me control your tail,' she said, moving forward.

The dragon stilled to let her jump on his back and test out the device. To his surprise, she began to undo the saddle.

"What are you doing!?"

'It's too late to go flying. My eyes don't adjust well to the dark, remember,' she answered his grumbling.

"So you just came here to waste your time? Idiot."

'I know, it probably seems stupid, but I have to know if I need to change anything before actually flying. I'd like to avoid falling so many times.'

Toothless scoffed.

'Whatever. Someday, you'll thank me for being paranoid.'

The dragon's stupid heart soared at the statement. Someday, implying they'd spend a long, long - maybe a lifetime long - time together.

_Stupid stupid stupid..._

He let himself fall to the ground and pretended to ignore her, 'Night, Toothless!'

What a stupid name for a stupid dragon that let himself get caught by a stupid runt of a human girl. Toothless deserved such a name. It wasn't that he was infatuated with the idea of flying with someone.

No. His kind, the type of dragon that has scales black as night and speed quick as thunder, was accustomed to flying alone. He did not seek company. He rode the wind alone...

He just needed the girl to help him fly again, was all.

That was all.

Toothless covered his face with his paws went to sleep, grumbling, "Stupid stupid stupid..."

* * *

**Deni-al~**

**Toothless adores Hiccup. Asher is jealous of EVERYONE! Hiccup is having fun, etc etc...**

**Chapter name: A Girl's Guide to Dragon Training**

**See ya, I guess**


	7. Tomorrow They Fly!

**Edit on Saturday, gonna try to finish story, bleh bleh bleh. **

**Anybody here ever read The Demonata? Darren Shan has got to be the best fiction author, or at least my favorite! I'm prettty sure Art is Artery, but idk. I'm only at the brginning of the second book... And Cirque du freak! I'm going to take a VERY wild guess and say Harkat is the Vampaneze Lord (muhaha).**

** I won't upload on weekends, but I will during this winter break :)**

* * *

Hiccup returned the next day with the saddle ready. Toothless cocked his head at the rope she'd brought along.

'I thought we'd stop using that.' He crooned at the rope, trying to be rid of it without actually doing so.

Hiccup laughed. She ignored his curiosity and set to saddle him up. The dragon grumbled, but stayed in place. Flying was flying, didn't matter the materials.

Half an hour later, he seemed to be less enthusiastic about the idea. He roared and grumbled at her, even slapped her with his ear.

"Stop carping you gigantic reptile," Hiccup said, pressing the foot pedal in a different direction. Toothless turned right.

She wrote it down on her cheat sheet the moment they landed again.

"I'm not gonna fall again," she said, "Neither am I willing to rebuild the pedal. It took me all night as it is. We just can't get this right, can we?"

They lifted into the air again. 'Speak for yourself. I'm perfect.' The Night Fury turned it's head pointedly, chin held high.

"Yeah, you're awesome. It's all my fault."

Hiccup shut up after that, because in all honesty? It _was_ her fault. All her fault. Every time she met up with Toothless, all she could think was how she had to fix this. Toothless was different, and deserved better treatment that the other dragons...

They landed again. She scribbled on her cheat sheet.

Hiccup signaled Toothless to get back in the air again, but the moment his feet were off the ground, the rope snapped. It would have been fine, considering that would usually just mean Toothless would go higher (something Hiccup longed for), except the winds were particularly strong that day.

"Whoaoaoa!"

Hiccup fell off Toothless when the dragon hit a tree behind them, but never managed to hit the ground. She raised her head, opening her eyes. She waited more. No impact.

Finally, she noticed she wasn't feeling any pain on her head, but on her waist.

_I knew it_, she thought. _I jammed it._

It was actually the saddle that had gotten jammed, but Hiccup took the blame herself.

"How are we going to fix this," she exclaimed, getting herself back on Toothless with difficulty.

'Use your tool thingies,' Toothless snorted, shrugging as if something were obvious.

"I don't have my tools with me," Hiccup continued, ignoring the dragon's eye-roll. "I'm an idiot. No, I'm worse. I'm a stupid Hiccup. I can't be good at anything."

Toothless jumped, bumping Hiccup off him again. 'Let's just go get them then.' He started to walk again, with Hiccup dangling off his back, only to have her jump up and off him. She swung her arms around him, prohibiting any movement towards Berk.

Toothless tried to force his way around her, but she kept her place.

"I'm not letting you go to Berk! Are you crazy!? Those Vikings will kill you the second they see you. They won't even take the time to wonder why I'm attached to you. They'll kill me too!"

Toothless stopped. He cocked his head. 'What do you suggest then, genius?'

Hiccup bit her lip.

"We'll...we'll wait till night falls. It should be hard to track you in the dark," _I know _I_ had difficulty doing it_, "My tools are in my table at the shop."

Hiccup sighed. She was bringing Toothless to Berk. She was bringing a dragon to Berk. She was bringing a _Night Fury_ to Berk.

"It's gonna be okay," she muttered to herself. "Look at what's been going on in my life so far! It's better than I could have ever imagined! I'm a hiccup and yet I'm acing dragon training, I can fly, I am going to die if anybody figures out I've been helping a dragon fly again..."

She would have been more nervous, except she couldn't afford it when Toothless sniffed anything in his way continuously.

"Toothless," she hissed. "Stop that! Come here." If Toothless didn't know she was right, and he should come, he wouldn't have let himself be pulled in by her, she knew it.

"Hiccup," someone calls out to her, and she leans on the side of the house, pretending to be calm.

"Hi," she salutes, pushing Toothless back some more.

The unknowing Viking leaves and Hiccup hurries to the blacksmith's shop.

"Toothless, get out of that bucket!"

* * *

Asher sometimes wonders why everything in Berk was so far away from everything else. The blacksmith's was in the center of the village, while the arena was at the very side, opposite of the woods. The decks were spread out along the village's shore lines, but it was difficult to get there unless you took a certain path or actually wanted to jump off a cliff.

The houses were kind of bunched up and put where they landed. Other than Mildew's house, the one at the very high, very far away hill full of cabbages, everyone's house was just there. No real piece of land, just the house. The land belonged to all of them to play and work in.

Except the woods. The woods was only for adults. Children weren't allowed there without supervision. Asher hadn't been allowed there until he turned thirteen.

He suspects Hiccup may have disobeyed that rule, which makes him feel proud and jealous all at once.

Her beating him in dragon training. _That_ didn't make him quite as proud. His expression darkened, and his gait became brusque, until her heard a clatter.

Asher turned his head in the shop's direction.

"Hiccup?"

He wasn't sure if he was curious or if he wanted to help her with whatever fell. He definitely hadn't expected himself to actually start querying her.

"Hiccup?" He called once more, approaching the building. Hiccup jumped out of the front counter, appearing out of nowhere like a phantom.

Asher stood back for a second, surprised by Hiccup's sudden appearance. She was leaning against the counter, repeating salutes constantly.

"Asher! Hey! Hi, Asher. Hi. Asher! Hi. Asher."

His eyes narrowed instantly at her nervousness.

"I normally don't care what others do, but you've been acting strange. Weird," he said. Had he meant to originally said that!?

Hiccup's figure neared the shop, hanging above the counter. Was she testing a device?

"Well, weirder..."

She gave him a worrying smile, before releasing a breath and escaping through the doors.

"Hiccup!" Asher opened the shop, searching for her in the dark room. Nothing but a fallen bucket, disorganized tools and weapons everywhere. Hiccup was nowhere to be found.

Eventually, Asher left.

* * *

The girl's name was Hiccup. It was embarrassing for the dragon to have just figured that out after almost two weeks of having her as his only company.

_Hiccup._

It was a nice name? His was more embarrassing, to be honest. Toothless. They were both embarrassing names. Toothless and Hiccup. Hiccup and Toothless. Dragon and Rider, Rider and Dragon. The girl and the dragon.

No matter how he put it, it was pleasant. It was a nice feeling to think he and 'Hiccup' would be together.

Maybe a very stupid feeling, because humans and dragons? Not a good combination, but he and the human? Toothless and Hiccup? Hiccup and Toothless?

That was an incredible combination that he was not willing to fight against anymore.

Toothless enjoyed every second of Hiccup trying to figure out how his fake tail worked on her day off.

'Tomorrow bud,' she said, unsaddling him. 'We're going out for a test drive tomorrow, definitely.'

"Well it's about time."

'This will work, Toothless! It will!'

"Sure," he rolled my eyes, despite completely trusting her word.

'Don't be so grumpy.'

_So tomorrow? Huh._ He didn't think he'd ever get to fly completely again, much less in two weeks. He may have tried that nifty trick she used with her mouth to show happiness [smile, for those who don't understand] but maybe not.

He didn't think tomorrow would also be the start of a horrible sequence of events.

* * *

**I felt the need to separate the chapters like so, despite this belonging to the 'See you tomorrow' scene. **

**Chapter name: Tomorrow They Fly! I think the moments between Hiccup and Toothless will just be 'They'. Hiccup only will mention feminine something and I think I have a single chapter made up almost completely of Asher's unbroken POV. That will mention a male, obviously.**


	8. Together They Soar

**Shoooort!**

* * *

Hiccup's moment had arrived! Well, her and Toothless', but that wasn't the point. The point was that Toothless would fly again!

They set off the way they usually did, barely gliding above the ocean's surface.

"Okay," she whispered to herself, "Let's go nice and slow..."

The cheat sheet she'd been creating for the past few days was attached to the front of the saddle, in front of her to view. She felt more confident with it. Especially considering she still confused position four with position three and vice versa.

"Okay, Here we go. Here we go. Position three- no four!"

They rose. _Go time_.

She spotted an arch of sea stacks just ahead of them.

_Oh gods!_ "It's go time it's go time..."

To her surprise, they made it through with no troubles! Maybe she won't need the cheat sheet after all!

"Yes, it worked!"

Then she slams Toothless into a sea stack.

'Hey!'

"Sorry!"

And another.

'Watch it,' Toothless grumbles. For good count, he also slaps her on the side of the head with his ear. For the third time that week.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," she says, annoyed. _Okay, back to the cheat sheet then..._

"Position fou-three." At least saying it incorrectly was getting smoother.

They flew higher than she'd ever gone before. For the first time in her life, she could see the entire island of Berk, right underneath her. Anybody else would have freaked out. She knows she should be afraid as well.

But it was_ great_! Exhilarating! She couldn't help but yell in the excitement as their height increased!

"Go! Oh my gods, yeah! Oh, this is amazing! The wind in my hair-" Then she saw the paper start to tear out of the saddle.

"Stop!"

Toothless stopped.

Time seemed to slow down as Hiccup detaches from the saddle. She grabs the cheat sheet, still unaware of it all.

It's not until she sees Toothless' face underneath her that she begins to panic. Toothless has a similar expression as her, she thinks. "Oh no-"

She sees it coming, yet at the same time it's too sudden. They both begin to fall. The wind no longer sways against her hair, but slaps her, trying to keep her up but failing. She and Toothless are falling.

She begins to try and calm Toothless, because it's the only way for them both to survive right now.

"Okay, it's alright, Toothless! You just have to kind of angle yourself- No no! Come closer to me, come-"

Hiccup thinks she might have blacked out, because she can't recall much pain from the hit she took from Toothless' wing. She also didn't recall falling any further away from him. Once her vision recovers from the stars she begins to near the screeching Night Fury.

Finally, she manages to grab on to the saddle's handles by the skin of her teeth. The chain doesn't fall back into place to secure her place, but she's too busy to pay that any attention. Instead, she works on staying above the treetops they were suddenly on top of.

The damn cheat sheet wouldn't stay in place either, but she tried her hardest to remember how to land. Sadly, the landing area extinguished and they were met by sea stacks, aligned as if they were especially made to slaughter them in flight.

Hiccup gave up on the cheat sheet, throwing it away and focusing on the pedals instead.

And for the first time ever, she soars. The speed, the reflexes, the feel of wind just passing them, knowing it's actually _her_ that's passing it.

She flips and turns on instinct, no longer bothered by the numbers on the sheet. Three and four could eat their hearts out, because she couldn't even remember what position they stood for!

It was an eternity put into a single six seconds, but they passed the sea stacks without breaking a sweat.

For a moment, all she could do was stare ahead at the clear air, yearning for just a few more obstacles. Then, realization hit.

"Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!" She raised her fists in the air, celebrating the moment in the most dangerous way possible.

Toothless kicked it up a notch, roaring out similarly and shooting out a bolt of hot, burning fire.

"Come on."

* * *

He really _was_ sorry. He'd repeated it a million times in the past ten minutes, even as he taught Hiccup how dragons fished. Toothless wasn't willing to ask for forgiveness more than a million and one times, so he regurgitated half of his first fish.

'Uh, I'm good, thanks.' She gestured to her own burnt cod.

_Ugh._ Cooked fish was just disgusting, in his opinion, but that was just the human way.

Her hair was also burnt, but that probably wasn't the human way... Mostly, that was just his fault...

Then, Toothless heard what was possibly the most annoying sound in the world, come from the most annoying creatures in the world.

Those annoying, bratty dragons. Full grown adults, but still not big enough to fish on their own, so they stole from other dragons instead.

"Stay away you tiny rodents of hel," he growled, hugging his food.

Hiccup backed up against him, trembling.

He ignored it, despite the fact that she shouldn't be afraid. She'd been with a Night Fury for two weeks, why would she still be afraid of dragons?

One of his fish started to dance away. Wait. Why was his-

"Hey! I said back off," Toothless glared, biting the head of his fish. The idiot refused to let go, and they began to play a one-sided tug-of-war. Obviously, Toothless won.

He laughed at the meager creature.

"I'll get you yet," the dragon said, preparing for battle. It gathered a flame, warming up for what was probably the biggest and the baddest fire he'd ever created.

Toothless blew a tiny spark into its mouth and grinned as the dragon walked away blankly, drunkenly flailing from side to side.

Hiccup no longer trembled, instead laughing at the antics. 'Not so fire-proof on the inside, huh little guy,' she said. No dragon was. 'Here you go,' she threw her own fish - one of the uncooked ones - at it.

"You don't have to do that," Toothless grumbled, eating his own fish before any of the other rodents got any ideas.

Hiccup gasped. He heard the brat fall asleep.

'Everything we know about you guys...is wrong.'

She seemed amazed by that idea. That was stupid. She'd been with him for two weeks, as previously mentioned. Although he, as a Night Fury, was admittedly greater than most dragons, they all still shared most attributes.

Morals and trains of thought as were innocent of any evil they'd done to humans. It was the damn lazy demon queen who'd taken them over. How could _that_ have started out so small so long ago?

The rest of the fish he ate was eaten more out of anger than actual hunger.

* * *

_At the docks the Vikings arrived._

_A single ship of them all survived._

_The chief comes out to greet his second._

_The blacksmith speaks of the loss of parental problems._

_The villagers come to support his word._

_Terror comes._

_Pride soon follows._

* * *

**So...yeah...I'm losing interest in this story as the days go by, to the point of forgetting about it completely. That's my problem with a lot of things. Have you guys read WYFC and Fated Present yet? Clara and Zero are secondary characters of a story I'm writing, and though I've got the idea of what the entire plot will be about (a bit morbid, but cute) I have no gumption to actually write it down. I already started though, so I must begin with Sammy at the museum and end with Piru's ultimate death! Yass!**

**#WhatAHassle**

**Chapter name: Together They Soar**


	9. Hate For Who He Loves

**...Sorry. Forgive me. My grand apologies.**

**I had no internet for winter break,and didn't want to update during the weekend. I'm also still not finished with this story, so there's that small hiatus this will for sure result in. Near the end, of course. How are you guys enjoying Toothless' POVs? Those are interesting for me.**

* * *

She couldn't believe it. Everything was just_ so wrong_. Her friends and family, if she dared call them so, were all _wrong_! Her father was wrong, and out there looking for a nest of dragons because- because dragons raided them on a weekly basis.

Why did they raid Vikings? That was also wrong. Both Vikings and dragons were in the wrong. Why were they _both so wrong_!?

She would never kill a human, just as she'd never kill a dragon. Not even if that dragon weren't a Night Fury, because she, too, had been wrong.

All dragons were...like Toothless. They could all think, feel. She'd wanted to kill that Monstrous Nightmare as well. But now...

Now she knew.

Hiccup flicked the pencil again.

She was a horrible person for at all wanting to harm a dragon! At all!

The moment she'd arrived back in Berk, she headed straight to the Zippleback's cage and fed it three times as much food (Overkill, but she felt terribly guilty). She also made sure to check for any signs of an eel, but it seemed whoever fed them had taken it long ago.

The pencil fell back and Hiccup poised to flick it again.

A giant figure appeared at the doorway, and she jumped. The figure was Stoick, a surprise considering no one had informed her of his arrival. Then again, she'd avoided human contact when she'd come back...

"D-dad! You're here! When did you-" She rushed to cover up any evidence of having a dragon as her best friend. Said evidence was completely spread out around her desk, too much for her tiny arms to cover.

_Oh gosh_, already she was feeling small in the presence of Stoick the Vast.

"Well," she said, yearning to recover the feeling of not being a disappointment, "Gobber's not here, so..."

"I know. I was looking for you."

"You what? _Me!?_"

"You've been keeping secrets."

Hiccup's legs went soft, and she collapsed, bringing along the drawing of Toothless and many other objects from the table. It didn't matter. He'd found out...

"I have?" She was a bad liar, so the fact that her voice went shrill by the end of that query was not surprising at all.

"Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it."

She'd been training with Toothless for two weeks. Plenty of time for someone to figure out her dirty little secret and keep it hidden long enough to inform Stoick about it. "Oh."

"So...let's talk about that dragon."

She feels herself pale, and she doesn't even attempt to hide her horrified expression. "Oh my gods! Dad, I'm so sorry! I tried to tell you, but then you left and then-"

To her great surprise, he burst out laughing.

_Huh?_

"You're- you're glad?"

"Of course I'm glad! This is what I was hoping for!"

"I'm lost..." She said meekly, doubting he even heard her. Still, hope began to rise in her chest.

"Oh, yes! Believe me, it only gets better! Wait 'til you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time." That sounded disgusting, but only confused her further more.

"What?"

"And mount your first Gronckle head on a spear!? Oh boy, what a feeling!"

Her heart sunk. _Right_. She'd been acing dragon training for the past two weeks as well. He was bound to hear of her "glory".

She wanted to cry.

He ruffles her hair roughly, getting most of it in her eyes. Hiccup stumbles back into Toothless' fish basket.

"You really had me going there! Fifteen years of the worst Viking Berk's ever seen!? Odin, it was rough - I almost gave up on you! All that time and you were holding out on me! Thor almighty!"

Okay, now she wanted to yell.

Hiccup looked away from him instead, biting her lip. He grabbed a chair and scoot in closer to her.

"Now that you're doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about."

Hiccup kept quiet. Talk about _what_? How great it felt to take down a Nadder when all she was doing was scratch it under the ear? How awesome it was that dragon nip worked on dragons? How amazing it was to fly so high in the air, it almost choked her?

The silence lasted a long time.

Finally, Stoick broke the nervous peace.

"Oh, I got you something," he said. He was just as nervous as her, and she didn't blame him. They weren't accustomed to father-daughter anything, and she wasn't willing to try in this situation.

Stoick took out a helmet.

A helmet.

Only the best of the best got a helmet, because, being the best, they needed the protection. It was a mark of honor. Even Asher - no, especially Asher - had one, but he didn't wear it, saying it was for the weak to protect themselves. It did, however, represent Viking pride and heritage, so he kept it.

And now she was being presented with her very own helmet.

"Wow," she said, grabbing it gingerly, "Thanks..."

"Your mother would have wanted you to have it," he smiled at her, and she took her time to fondle the precious treasure. "It's half of her breast plate." Her hand stopped immediately.

"Matching set," Stoick tapped his own diminutive helmet with his knuckles. Hiccup's eyes narrowed at the size difference between breast plate- helmets... "Keeps her close, you know?

"Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up you end of the deal."

So this was _his_ end of the deal? Somehow, she felt betrayed and traitorous all at once.

"Yes, good. Okay, good talk. I'm glad I came, I hope you like your hat..."

"See you back at home, and thanks for stopping by. Thanks for the breast hat..."

The awkward good bye ended and Stoick squeezed himself out the door.

Hiccup stared at her new helmet, suddenly feeling more burdened than ever before. A loud crash outside her small desk room kept her alert, and she ducked to pick up her drawings of Toothless.

This was so messed up.

* * *

Today was the day! The last day for training!

Asher and Hiccup, the last two to stay "alive" once the Gronckle'd been released were the last two competitors on the list to kill the Monstrous Nightmare. Beating this Gronckle would decide that.

Nothing mattered more to Asher than killing this dragon! He was_ winning_! While Hiccup had only managed to stay out of the way by pure luck, he'd actually evaded the dragon with pure _stealth_.

For some reason, he walked over to Hiccup again. Not to help, this time he was sure of that. It still caught him by surprise when a threat came out instead of a sportman-like comment like, 'Good luck' or 'Be careful with that dragon'.

No, instead, he went ahead and said, "Stay out of my way. I'm winning this." That, he could have lived with. The fact that he'd pointed his ax at her the entire time was soul-crushing.

So much for dating Hiccup.

But that wasn't his current issue to deal with. Right now, he had to take down a Gronckle before Hiccup managed to.

"This time, this time for sure."

Asher leaned his head against the obstacle and took a deep breath. Then, he released a warrior's shout and jumped over the the board...

To find Hiccup already standing over a fallen Gronckle.

_No. No! **NO!**_

How could this have happened!? He'd been born for this! This was what his entire life had been working up to! Every day, he'd trained; every day, he'd ponder what it would be like to kill a dragon; every day, he'd let go of what little child-like mind he had! For nothing!

"No. No! No! Son of a half-troll rat-eating munge bucket piece of..." The curse continued to escape his mouth as he literally threw a tantrum in front of the entire village.

Why would he care? Hiccup had beaten him.

"Wait!" Stoick yelled, his voice almost as loud as Gobber's. "The elder still has to choose."

Hiccup tried to walk away. Gobber held her by the back of her vest and stuck her next to him.

"I'm kinda late for-"

"What!? Late for what exactly!?" Asher didn't even care he was threatening her at this point.

Gothi. Gothi knew everything. She could always tell. She'd know it was him who deserved the prize, not Hiccup._ Please..._

Gobber held a hand over his head, and Asher did his best to look like the personification of courage, strength and the entirety of stubborn Viking-ness as much as possible.

She...shook her head.

Why? It couldn't be- No. No,** why!** He was_ Asher_! **_Asher Hofferson!_** He should have...he should have...

The cheers erupted and Asher knew Gothi had chosen Hiccup.

He should have beaten Hiccup. He should have been the hero...

He watches Hiccup leave out of the ring with absolutely no emotion in his chest, other than pure loathe. Loathe at who? Hiccup. How was it still possible for someone to love and loathe the same person?

Asher didn't care, but he knew he could only do one at a time. Right now, right now he really loathed her.

Hadn't she been late for something?

* * *

**Yeah, but I'm not updating more just because I missed updates from before. Headache. Hate School! Binomials are awesome but mock exams are coming up and I gotta study blah blah blah~**

**Chapter name: Give me a second. I my head aches. Father's back, Hiccup won exam, Asher's jealousy streak reaches a new low (high?)...I'll center on the Ashe, because of the loathe. Re-reading that really struck me as melodramatic, but whatevs. Just wanted to do POVs and use the name Asher, really. No other reason to do this when I'm so unoriginal about these things...I'm gonna go write about Sammy meeting Clara now. Zero's gonna be worried :)**

**Oh, btw. Chapter Name is Hate For Who He Loves**


	10. His Crazy Crush Owns a Night Fury

**This is probably my favorite chapter, because it's mostly in Asher's POV. So, get tready to meet the Red Death in a completely anticlimactic point of view due to fright. Also, pick-up line of the day: Hey there! Would you like to talk about Homestuck~?**

* * *

Hiccup lost any and all feeling in her legs when Gothi approved of her, completely looking over the perfectly liable Asher - who by the way, hated her more than ever now, she was sure. It was good, she guesses, that Gobber immediately picked her up then.

Along with Gobber's rowdy cheers and the crowds loud exclamations, the one phrase that stood out the most was "That's my girl!"

Despite it all, Hiccup played along. "Haha! Yeah! I'm so- I am so _excited_..." In a sense, she was. It wasn't everyday you decided to run away from home with your dragon friend.

_This is my life_, she thought, dragging along the various fish in a basket and Toothless' saddle. Her tools were also at hand, but other than that, it was just the regular haul.

"Hey! We're leaving!" She entered the cove through the usual entrance, taking her time to keep her bearings. "We're leaving! Pack up; looks like you and me are taking a vacation," she dropped the items near the large rock she'd been cornered in by Toothless the first time he'd regurgitated a half-fish._ Ah, memories..._ "Forever."

Toothless didn't come out, probably sleeping, the lazy lizard. Instead of bothering herself with waking him up, she began to rummage through her stuff. Finally "satisfied", she sighed and muttered, "Oh man..."

**Shink-**

The sharp sound of something already incredibly pointy being honed came from right above her, and she knew it was Asher before even looking up.

"Asher! What the- What are you doing here?" Hiccup tried to play it off, pretend she hadn't mentioned anything about running away from Berk. Thankfully, Asher had either not heard, or just wanted to hurt her.

Okay, she wasn't quite as grateful for the latter...

Asher hopped off the rock nonchalantly, keeping his eyes on his ax with what Hiccup assumed was his innocent yet threatening expression. Consider her threatened then.

"I just want to know what's going on," he said, "No one gets as good as you do. Especially," he finally looked at her, coldly and with no sign of remorse, "not you."

Honestly, Hiccup couldn't have agreed more, but her heart was hurting a lot right now. Now that she thought of it, Asher hadn't never actually _bullied_ her before. Sure, he'd give her a disappointed look here and there, indirectly kill her ego with advice and/or his very presence, but actually put it in her face how useless she was?

_Nope._

Well, there was a first time for everything.

Maybe some of the hurt reflected, because he seemed to pause. Instead, he shook whatever sympathy he may have had and grabbed her specially designed harness. "Start talking. Are you training with someone?"

"T-Training?"

"It better not involve this."

She was so scared! "I know this looks bad, but you see, I-"

They hear a rustle from the other side of the cove, and Asher drops Hiccup to investigate. Hiccup falls to her feet, but stumbles back and falls on her butt. "Ouch..."

"Who are you with?" Asher says, sounding just a tad different than before. More curious than threatening, but still plenty menacing.

Panicking, Hiccup walked over to him and grabbed his hand to lead him away. "You're right! You are absolutely correct! I'm through with the lies! I've been... I've been making outfits! You got me. It's time everyone knew... Drag me back, go ahead, here we-eek!"

Asher lifted her off the ground and let her drop...again. "Stop doing that," she hissed, sitting up and rubbing her slightly twisted ankle.

"That's for the lies," he said. "Now stay there unless you want to pay for everything else."

Ah, still a gentleman then. She was about to snark at him and ask what "everything else" might be, but a growl interrupts her. She stops touching her right ankle, looking up to see Toothless stalking to them.

"Oh man," she says meekly, standing up to halt any combat between her crush and best friend. Well didn't that sound like the gossip of the week, if only the best friend wasn't a dragon and the crush completely out of her league.

Before she could take a single step forward, she was taken down by Asher...again...

"Get down- no! Run! Run!"

Hiccup scowled at him. _Either "get down" or "run", make up your mind!_ Before she could state any of her spite, she saw the black dragon closing in at the speed of a- well, a Night Fury!

Then she saw Asher ready to throw his ax. "No!" Hiccup yells, throwing herself against him and flinging his ax away.

Asher lays on the ground in shock, and she takes the chance to run ahead and put herself between the dragon and Viking boy. Toothless, still aware of her own fragile body, barely contains himself, growling and looking over her shoulder to glare at Asher.

"No! No, it's okay! He's a friend." Toothless didn't believe that, though to be honest, it had been the best lie she'd told in her life.

Asher started, standing up.

"You scared him," she said, giving Asher a disapproving "see what you did?" look.

"I...scared him?" Asher looked indignant one second. The next, he looked rather disturbed, and completely confused. "Who...is him?"

Hiccup bit her lip, pausing to look at Toothless and then at Asher. "Asher, this is Toothless. Toothless," she paused to look at her dragon in the eye, but he wouldn't stop glaring at the boy, "Asher." Hiccup did the best warning tone she could possibly muster.

Toothless was not cooperative, and displayed his teeth in full glory, greeting Asher with the most sarcastic 'Nice to meet you look,' followed by a 'Now get out and die.'

Hiccup held hope, looking over to Asher for any sign of him understanding. The sign was not there, and he slowly shook his head, backing away from her in full tattle-tale mode. He ran out the cove.

"Duh dada," Hiccup's shoulder's slumped, "We're dead."

Toothless backed away, appearing satisfied with Asher's response. 'Weren't we taking a vacation anyway? I can't stand this island any longer.'

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Where do you think you're going?"

'Uh...vacation?' Toothless gave her a confused look.

"No! Do you know what Asher is going to do? He is going to tell my father about you and this place will rest at nothing to kill me! Aw man," she pressed her palms against her forehead, "I didn't wanna leave like this! I was doing so well and then- We have to go after him!"

Toothless grumbled, looking away in irritation.

"Toothless, now."

The dragon looked to her, but she seemed extremely serious, and his fish_ did_ depend upon her. He finally rolled his eyes and agreed, settling down to get ready for a flight.

"Thanks bud."

* * *

Asher stared at the girl of his dreams and her dragon. _Her dragon_.

Hiccup had a pet _dragon_ she'd probably been keeping for...two weeks. She'd said she'd taken down a Night Fury, but instead of killing it, she made it her_ pet_!

That was the craziest thing he'd ever heard of! Hiccup had spent her time with a_ Night Fury_ for a couple of weeks and named it_ Toothless_ of all thing! She was unbelievably crazy and he had to tell Stoick about this!

What was that girl thinking?! What was there to gain from befriending a _dragon_ other than evil!

He'd fallen in love with a crazy girl. He'd fallen in love with a goddamn crazy girl!

_Gods, a **dragon**!_

He leapt over a log. Before he could touch the ground though, he was grabbed the the claws a a Night Fury. _A Night Fury!_

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuugggghhhhhh! Oh great Odin's ghost, this is it! Aaahh!"

The dragon flung him on a tree branch, and he quickly grabbed on for dear life. The branch swayed, but it didn't break.

Asher turned his head towards the dragon, and found Hiccup riding it_. Riding it!_

"Hiccup! Get me down from here!"

"Not until you let me explain," she replied in a strong voice, barely quivering.

"I'm not listening to anything you have to say," he yelled, suddenly realizing why it hurt so much to find out Hiccup having a dragon hurt. He felt betrayed. He loved her and she'd absolutely betrayed him, along with the rest of the village.

He was throwing another tantrum, wasn't he?

_No!_ This was perfectly liable to be mad over! _A dragon! A** Night Fury**!_

"Then I won't speak. Just...just let me show you," she held out a hand. Hiccup was inviting him to ride a_ Night Fury_ with her. _What the hel, no!_

"Please Asher," she says meekly, and he can't say no. He compromises and stays mute, grabbing the strange saddle and shrugging off her extended hand.

Finally on, he says, "Now get me down."

"Toothless? Down. Gently."

_Toothless_. What a stupid name for the offspring of lightning and Death itself, which had an incredible amount of teeth, by the way.

They start at a slow pace, rising swiftly into the air.

"See, nothing to be afraid of- whoa!" That's when the terror commenced.

The dragon shoots into the air, letting the wind slap them both in the face. Asher wasn't sure if he was screaming, but he wasn't quite aware of much else other than the constant feeling of almost falling down.

Only the flips and twirls the dragon made managed to get a reaction from him, but it was all frightening nonetheless. He just screamed and screamed and screamed, not seeing an end to the horror. His voice didn't go hoarse by the time he finished.

Finally, he heard an angels voice, but it sounded weird. Kind of nasally with a cute undertone to it. "And now the spinning. Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile."

That slowly brought him back to his senses, but only enough for him to yell out, "Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, just get me off this thing!"

He didn't care about sounding cowardly in front of her. He wanted out! The girl and the dragon were both crazy and out to get him. One for his ear and the other his life.

Suddenly, the cold air that had been dizzying him for an eternity became cool, and some heat rushed to his cheeks to warm faster. His arms were clasped around Hiccup, but he refused to dislodge from the only bulwark he had.

The feeling of almost falling never left, but it wasn't as terrifying anymore. As a matter of fact, it was nice. It was...beautiful. Asher was never one to stop to admire a view, but he'd be lying if he said Berk didn't look awesome from so far away.

Was this what they'd been missing out on while Hiccup managed to get a Night Fury to fly?

His arms tightened around her automatically, and he smiled at the contact. The best part? She didn't push him away. Then again, she was flying the dragon - with a pedal?.

Asher felt the moment was wrong to ask, but a glance back was enough to not need to. The sunset shone on them, and there was a clear difference between the brown fake tail Hiccup was controlling and the true black one.

Hiccup actually being violent. It was almost unimaginable. Not even in the ring had she taken down the dragon with any sort of it. She'd used_ tactics._ Tactics she'd no doubt gained from the Night Fury...

"Alright," he finally began to process thoughts correctly, "I'll admit it. This is pretty cool." He paused, sensing it wasn't enough to describe what he was experiencing for the first time in his life. "It's amazing."

"He's amazing," Hiccup said, smiling but facing forward.

"I guess he is." The "he" came naturally, and Asher knew he could get accustomed to Hiccup's crazy.

The dragon continues to fly in silence, making no noise whatsoever. Strange, he'd always know when a Night Fury was near by the sound they can't help but make. A loud **FFFWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOUUSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH** that was usually followed by, "Night Fury - Get down!"

"So, what now?" He asked, suddenly remembering why he'd been running away from her in the first place. Vikings hated nothing more that dragons, and currently, Hiccup owned one.

Hiccup groaned. "I was going to fix that..."

"By leaving?" He glared at her suddenly red neck, feeling betrayed again. "Well, you can't. You're not going to leave unless you want to fall off the end of the world." He wasn't actually sure of that, but Hiccup had to stay with him - the village.

"Toothless will fly us back up," she puffed her cheeks stubbornly.

"That may be so," Asher said, exasperated, "But you can't just run away from this Hiccup! Tomorrow, they're expecting you to-" He paused, aware of a dragon's presence.

Lowering his voice, Asher continued, "To kill a Nightmare."

"Ugh. Don't remind me- whoa!"

Asher gasped, as did Hiccup. Toothless had started to descend into the darkness, forcing Hiccup to struggle for control.

"Toothless!? Toothless, what are you doing? What's happening?" Toothless refused to listen, continuing on his own path and flying ahead without consent.

"Can't you steer him!?"

"Not without his consent! I'll have to let him lead us-" They narrowly avoided collision.

With another dragon. A Zippleback, to be specific. Asher panicked and turned to his right, only to find a Nightmare there too.

The fog rolled over and cleared briefly to show they were surrounded by dragons, all headed to the same place.

"Get down," Hiccup whispers when one of the Zippleback's heads notices them. The dragon ignores the humans and moves on.

Asher's breath hitched. How was Hiccup not as nervous as him? This whole time he'd thought she had complete control of the dragon, but-

Well, at least he knew who to blame for the neck-twisting ride back then...

"It looks...like their hauling in their kill."

Asher's heart thumped. _The Night Fury..._ "Then...what does that make us?"

Hiccup doesn't answer, and to his annoyance, she also does nothing to stop the dragon they were riding. Not that she could, apparently...

After a few more frightening close-calls, they arrived at a...mountain? Only, it was red-hot and surrounded by dragons to the core. Dragons of all kind, not even sticking to just the fundalmental kinds Gobber had been teaching them about.

Were they-? Was this- was this the dragon nest?

Hiccup seemed to think so as they entered the mountain, where it was hotter inside than it had been outside.

"What my dad wouldn't give to find this..."

Asher could think of few things Stoick wouldn't give to find this. Very few.

They settled down on a rock, high above the large gap at the center of the mountain. It was terribly hot, but Toothless wasn't leaving and Hiccup wasn't urging the dragon to.

That worried him, but he stayed quiet to observe the dragons, just as Hiccup was doing. Just as she'd been doing for the past couple of weeks...

"Nice to know all our foods being thrown down a giant hole," Hiccup whispered sardonically. Asher gave her a weird look before figuring it was just a Hiccup thing. Adorable even in the most perilous of times.

Toothless hissed at her to shut up.

Asher's eyes narrowed, but Hiccup did nothing and continued to observe. She elbowed Asher (Elbowed? Since when did Hiccup _elbow_?) and pointed at a Gronckle that had finally arrived over the giant hole. Hiccup _elbowed_ people? Maybe he was focusing on the wrong thing...

The lazy Gronckle barely had a single fish to drop into the hole. It dropped it and, satisfied, began scratching itself.

To their horror, a sudden and unfamiliar roar filled the air, barely sounding like an irritated grumble despite it being loud enough to shake them. Shake them_ all_.

The Gronckle's eyes widened before it calmed to an extent. Hiccup gasped.

And a giant scaly red dragon head popped out of the foggy hole and swallowed the Gronckle whole.

"What is that!?" Asher almost yells, terrified. Hiccup shakes in front of him, but still answers.

"I don't know, but I don't care to find out. Toothless, let's get out!" The gigantic dragon shifts an eyes towards them, releasing a louder roar as it stares Asher in the eye. "Toothless, _now_!"

Finally, the Night Fury gets it through its head. They lift off into the air and shoot out, speeding past any and all dragons. Asher watched as the others followed their example and took off as well, racing to get away from it.

"AAAHHH," Hiccup screams, looking behind them. Asher turns just in time to see a Zippleback get caught in the teeth of the huge dragon, barely saving them from certain death.

"Go Toothless!"

The dragons sped away, and Asher didn't complain about the wind hitting his face.

"What was that thing, Hiccup?" He asked the apparent dragon expert.

"I don't know! I've never been here before, but- but..."

"What do you mean you've never been here? You've had this damn dragon for two weeks!"

"I don't know! Maybe Toothless and I had better things to do than visit the dragon nest's mother of doom," Hiccup yelled, insulted.

Asher huffed. "This is not a joke Hiccup!"

"I'm_ not_ joking," she yelled, as Toothless slowed down to an easier glide. She pet its head. "It seemed to...it seemed to be controlling them. I don't think they like it..." Toothless gave out a shudder that consisted of his shoulders and above, supporting her statement to the fullest.

Asher thought for a minute. Finally, it dawned on him. "You're right!"

"...I am?"

"Yes! Don't you see? It's like a beehive! The smaller dragons are the bees and the big one's the queen."

Hiccup gave him a side-way glance, which Asher took as doubt.

"No no. It makes total sense. She controls them; she's the queen and they're the workers!"

Hiccup stayed silent, and Toothless landed on the shore of Berk. Asher barely paid mind to it, still talking.

"Come on, we've gotta tell your dad," he held her hand and pulled forward.

To his surprise, Hiccup flung herself back.

"What, no! No, he'll kill Toothless!"

Asher stopped.

"No. We have to think this through, Asher." Hiccup paced, calmly freaking out as Toothless walked over to drink from the water.

"What!? Hiccup! We've found the dragon's nest! The thing Vikings have been searching for for _three hundred years_! You're not gonna seriously throw it away for your pet dragon, are you!?" It'd been happening all day.

Hiccup let Toothless control their flight.

Hiccup let Toothless "tell her" to shut up, when not even her dad could manage that.

Hiccup let Toothless be human, when it was supposed to be a dragon, and it was getting to Asher!

But Hiccup's eyes barely widened at the questioned. She hesitated, but puffed out her chest and looked him in the eye with a straight answer, no sign of backing away from it.

"Yes."

Asher stopped glaring at her. In all his fifteen years he had never seen Hiccup look so...determined. Firm. Unwilling to back off.

He still didn't completely trust Toothless. How could he place his trust in the dragon after only one day? Maybe sometime later...very very _very_ later, but he didn't trust it now.

But Hiccup was human. A Viking, now more so than ever before.

She looked away, as if suddenly guilty about her decision, but she was still not going to back off.

"Okay," he finally, answered, nonchalant as always. No use freaking out, especially not in front of his crush. She was a bit crazy, now he knew it more than anything, but what was Hiccup without crazy? "So, what do we do?"

Hiccup looked up at him, surprised by his lenience, no doubt. He looked right on, still expecting an answer.

She almost smiled, but took the question seriously enough not to. Oh sure, when the dragon was thrown into the problem she had no problems keeping her complacent attitude away. Asher tried not to be jealous. Who ever heard of some being jealous of a dragon?

"Just give me until tomorrow. I'll figure it out, somehow..."

"Okay."

Asher walks closer to her, watching as she stills at the sudden closeness. He was blocking her path from her pensive pacing. He didn't care, she could think without moving. He'd seen her do it so many times before.

So, to stop her thinking, he flicked her between the eyes.

"Hey-!"

"That was for kidnapping me," Asher stated firmly.

Hiccup gave him a look before turning to Toothless. The dragon did nothing to help his rider. _Ha!_

Then, he leaned down an cupped her cheek. She stilled and must have flushed, because her face was suddenly warmer. He smiled at the thought of blushing Hiccup, cursing the darkness surrounding them for hiding the view.

His own blush arouse as he closed the cap between them, touching her...cheek with his lips. How disappointing, really, but exhilarating at the same time.

"That's for everything else," he said, looking away. Then he turned and ran away before Hiccup could protest against anything else. Had that made it clear enough, or was he going to have to confess some other day?

His face was completely red when he reached his bedroom.

* * *

**I freaked out when her "cupped her cheek"...**

**OH GOD IM BLUSHING! BLASPHEMY!**

**Anyway, Asher dominates the chapter, therefore I must mention a man. **

**Chapter Name: His Crazy Crush Owns a Night Fury**

**See ya, I guess...gonna read more Homestuck! I recommend not searching it up, yo, cause Hussie's gonna take yo sould if you do YOOOOOOOO!**


	11. The Angst She Must Deal With

**Not sorry in the slightest for updating such a short chappie..speaking of which. Anyone excited for that move, 'CHAPPIE'?**

* * *

Hiccup was surprised Asher had warmed up to Toothless at all. The fact that he agreed to keep quiet about him was great. She almost smiled at him, but the problem at hand halted her._ No. Toothless, now. Crush, later._

She'd figure it out by tomorrow. That was a promise she made to all three of them.

Asher stopped her pacing, getting in front of her. She flushed._ So close. Too close! Eek!_

He flicked her between the eyes. _Ow!_ "Hey-!"

"That's for kidnapping me," he said, as a matter of fact.

Hiccup looked over to Toothless, who was calmly sipping water. Noticing her look, he rolls his eyes and flicks his head towards her. 'That's _your_ problem now.'

_Ass..._

Hiccup turned back over, taking the advice and facing her own "problem". But he cupped her cheek, so she had no other choice but to still and blush. No doubt, he knew what he was doing to her. It was impossible for him not to.

His lips were close, and they neared her at a quick pace, but it felt like a very long time before they actually touched her. On her cheek.

It was great...

"That's for everything else," he said, before jogging away to his own home.

He'd kissed her. He'd_ kissed_ her!

Hiccup let a goofy smile reach her lips, before feeling a presence behind her.

Toothless looked at her. His 'you were saying...' look was correct, but nonetheless annoying.

"Wh-wha- what are you looking at!?"

'Oh nothing,' He looked away. 'Idiot.'

Hiccup scoffed. "He's Asher. I already told you he's perfect... Out of my league."

Toothless gave her a longing look. He crooned. 'You're not serious, are you?'

"I'm Hiccup," she said, "Of course he's out of my league. Anyone is."

The dragon glared at her, bumping his head into her abdomen. 'No, you are not!' He growled.

"Toothless," she gave him an appreciative smile, "thanks, but you don't have to do that. Even you think I'm usele-"

Toothless growled. He growled and she hushed, letting him shake his head at her angrily. 'I never _meant_ it!'

Hiccup stared at her dragon for a second. Did he seriously believe she was better than a useless Hiccup? That was impossible. Nobody believed she was more than that. Nobody.

Not the adults, not the teenagers, not her father, not Asher, not even Hiccup. Why did Toothless-

She'd built him the tail.

"Oh," she finally said, feeling guilty for having him living such a lie. "Oh."

She tried to correct it the rest of the way, but Toothless wouldn't give in. She was_ special_, he would argue in his own dragon way. In some way, she was special! No, not in_ some_ way! She was special in_ every single way_!

_Sure I am_, Hiccup smiled as she walked back home. The door of the house creaked softly, but Stoick's snores drowned it out. If he did hear, he was already used to the creak. She'd arrived later when she was younger.

A period of solitude she'd gone through and he'd gotten used to, now that she thought about it. That's why she knew the forest better than most teenagers. She'd stayed there from dawn to midnight, and Stoick stopped asking questions after the fifth time. She returned unscathed and with a smile on her face, tracing the lines on her sketchbook, so there was no need to worry.

But that was when she'd been nine, ten. She still hadn't been dangerous. After she turned twelve, her staying out late actually became a worry for him.

That year, she built her first cannon. And almost broken Bucket. Strangely, Bucket still broke a month later, but at least it wasn't her fault.

Now that she was so good in dragon training, he was probably fine with her staying out late again.

Tomorrow, she'd break that small pact they held.

Hiccup had made up her mind walking back home. It had always been the first thing to pop into her mind, telling the village, but that was a stupid idea if she'd ever heard one. Sadly, it was the only choice left unless she left.

She wanted to leave. Why stay in a village where everyone hated you, but loved the lie you'd made up? She looked over to the helmet that had belonged to her probably fierce mother. What a disappointment, she was.

And Asher... Maybe he...cared?

The thought kept her heart pounding erratically and face flushed as she fell asleep that night.

* * *

Toothless never knew! It had been a joke. A game between...friends... He'd never meant to actually make her feel-

She was not useless! For her to actually believe she was so hurt him. How could she think of herself that way? Toothless had been useless without his tail fin. He'd been so useless he couldn't even take care of himself. He couldn't even catch a _single fish_!

But then Hiccup had come and offered her own. She'd looked terrified, but determined to...keep him alive._ Him. A dragon!_ She ended up being more useful than anyone the Night Fury had ever met.

Eventually, he and Hiccup had come to be best friends.

They joked. Roughly sometimes. She had the ability of getting hit by a dragon and not get bruised apparently, and showed no pain when he through himself on her or slapped her with an ear. Usually it was amusing or irritating for her.

Communication, because words didn't seem to be available, had been just as rough, in a friendly sardonic way.

Hiccup called him a useless reptile, an overgrown lizard, and he let her know just how "useless" and "weak" she was.

He never thought she took it seriously.

Toothless shook his head roughly, glaring at the ground. That was just the type of friendship he and Hiccup had. No. It wasn't Toothless' fault.

It was her tribe's.

Never before had Toothless hated Vikings more than he did now.

* * *

**And...the angst. No wonder this was my shortest chapter. I suck at angst.**

**Anyways (is not a word). Chapter name: The Angst She Must Deal With**

**See ya, I guess**


	12. The Viking and her Night Fury is a thing

Whoops! Whoops! I have mock exams guys! ... Yeah, I know you know that I haven't been studying nearly as much as I should. Life of a freshman sure is hard... Whatevs. Sorry, I don't actually count fanfiction as my life's top priority. Sociology still beats all :)

But-! The mock exam is next Tuesday, so I should finish this stupid story by...the end of the year! How's that sound?! No? F U, IDK!

* * *

The next morning was filled with dread for Hiccup. Even as she and Toothless flew, her thoughts were on the Nightmare the village - her father! - expected her to slaughter.

"Toothless," she spoke with an unnaturally serious tone. They were descending, meaning it was almost time for the final exam.

Toothless lifted an ear and crooned when she didn't continue immediately.

"Right, erm... I've gotta keep the saddle on you."

He cocked his head. 'Why, you never do that.'

"I just- Just to be sure. Not everyone likes dragons."

He lowered his ears, growling. 'The boy!?"

"Nono, it wasn't Asher! I just- It's complicated..."

So she left the saddle on his back, and hugged him. "See you later bud," she said, waving and exiting the cove. Hopefully.

Toothless didn't seem too concerned, so she let herself relax as well. No doubt, Toothless would be asleep when she came back to give him the good news. When, not if. She couldn't risk an _if_.

It was anticlimactic to her. Walking to her house and putting on her helmet, only to go back out and walk to the ring. It should have taken longer, and it should have been dreadful. Instead, she saw her father grin almost all day, Gobber sang, everyone she passed congratulated her and everything in general emitted a cheerful feeling.

Once she was just behind the barred entrance of the arena, she felt the expected dread arrive. Asher walked up to her, careful to keep the mournful atmosphere as it was. Hiccup suddenly missed that morning, when she was nonchalantly speaking to Toothless, joking as if the exam wasn't frightening her to her core.

She sighed.

Stoick spoke.

"Well, I can finally show my face again!" The crowd found that hilarious. "If someone had told me that in a few short weeks, Hiccup would go from being, well, Hiccup to placing first in dragon training? Well, I would have tied him to a mast and shipped him off for fear that he'd gone mad! Yes, and you know it!"

That didn't help Hiccup's shriveled ego, but it caused her more guilt than before. Today, they'd all know. She hadn't gone from Hiccup to placing first. She'd gone from Hiccup to Insane Hiccup, dragon rider.

"But here we are, and no one is more surprised...or more proud than I. Today, my daughter becomes a Viking. She becomes one of us!" The crowd uproared and Hiccup had to look away.

He continues his speech, and Hiccup turns around to finally greet Asher. She offered a grimace.

"Careful with that dragon," he said.

Hiccup scoffed and glanced at the tribe again. "It's not the dragon I'm worried about..."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm ending this," Hiccup kept herself firm. The helmet slid forward slightly, disgracing her statement. She pushed it back, glaring at the encumbrance from below.

Asher gave her an amused, albeit small, smile. But just as swiftly, it turned into a frown. He was doubting her.

"I have to try, Asher," she paused, remembering that morning. She'd left Toothless with the saddle on, hoping she wouldn't have to come back to him in a hurry to run away, but realistic enough to know that would probably happen. What if she couldn't come back at all?

"Asher, if something happens to me, just promise me...promise you'll take care of Toothless."

For a moment, she din't think he'd agree, but the hesitation was short. "Okay, but...promise me nothing will go wrong." He looked her in the eye, a spark that hinted he cared.

Hiccup couldn't lie to him like that. She was about to speak, to say she couldn't promise something when she knew keeping it wasn't in her hands.

Gobber's hand pulled her back and turned her over. She faced the arena.

"It's time Hiccup. Knock 'em dead!"

_Who?_ She wanted to ask, if only to give one last sardonic joke before facing a Nightmare.

She looked up to find her father looking at her, pride clear in his eyes. He nodded encouragingly and she offered no smile.

_Now that she thought about it, Nightmares were pretty big. The caught on fire and definitely went for the kill, based on her experience._

The small dagger she chose started to dig into her hand, just a bit. Only enough to leave a red mark, and hopefully no blood.

Deep breath. "I'm ready..."

_A Nightmare had almost killed her... If that weapon hadn't come out of nowhere that morning-_

The gate opened, and the biggest dragon she'd seen yet cam out, craving freedom and a meal like a wild animal.

The helmet sunk again, but she kept it up, unwilling to look away from the dragon. She was terrified of it, but it was a dragon! As far as she knew, dragons were better companions than Viking ever were.

It scaled the walls, firing at random before its eyes finally found her.

There's a sudden silence, in which Hiccup knew every single Viking was hoping for her to do her magic and take out a Nightmare. That was definitely not happening. How was a hiccup to take down a dragon?

The silence unnerves her, but the point is to calm the Monstrous Nightmare down. She had to stay calm and time her movement as well.

The shield and dagger fall from her hands, one at a time, but their sounds coexisted for a single second before silencing.

Murmurs began. She'd "taken down" dragons without weapons before. Some were excited, others doubtful.

The Nightmare eyed her curiously, displaying the same amount of intelligence Hiccup had seen in Toothless since day 1. She extends a hand, slowly, but it never fails to alert the dragon in front of her. Only this time, the dragon was big, red and probably hungry.

Toothless had been hungry too.

Hiccup reassured herself with that and took a slow deep breath. "It's okay," she whispers to him, "It's fine."

The dragon eyes her dubiously. 'All Vikings harm dragons,' it leered at her, glaring at a point above her head.

Of course. Her helmet. The only proof she had to her Viking heritage. (She wonders for a second if Toothless knows she's a Viking. She must've mentioned it at least once in the past two weeks, right?)

Dragons wouldn't trust Vikings, just as Vikings didn't trust dragons. Even Asher didn't trust Toothless, she knew.

"I'm not one of them," she trumpets, finally taking off the helmet. It dropped to the floor, clattering loudly and echoing for longer than the shield and dagger had.

Gasps. Murmurs. They were all perplexed, but they were keeping quiet, just as Hiccup needed. She neared the dragon. He was calmer now, still alert, but willing to hear her out. A ceasefire.

"Stop the fight," he father's loud voice spoke, alerting only her.

"No," she yelled, still eyeing the dragon. "I need you to see this. All of you. They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them."

Her hand neared it's snout. It was warm, almost hot, which should probably be expected from a dragon that set itself on fire daily.

"I said _**'STOP THE FIGHT**_**'!"**

**PAAN**_**GG-G-g-g-g-gg!**_

It was all it took. One second, her hand was inches away from the Monstrous Nightmare's snout, the other, she was snatching it back before it was bit off. They looked each other in the eye for less than a second before she ran.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" She was being chased by a Nightmare. Again. She would never admit to it, but that dragon had been in more nightmares than she'd care for these past two weeks, and one of them started exactly like this.

"Hiccup!" Asher yelled. She turns to glance at him, narrowly avoiding a blast.

Searching for cover, Hiccup runs behind the weapon's rack. It's blasted away in seconds, dropping weapons everywhere, melting others.

The Nightmare almost catches her until a hammer comes in, striking it in the neck and granting Hiccup a temporary egress.

"This way!" Stoick's voice cuts through them and they both begin to run to him. He's holding up a gate, waving a hand for them to take the exit. Asher slides through.

Hiccup almost makes it, but red hot lava appears out of nowhere, burning the path in front of her and cutting her off. She turns immediately and runs.

"Aaah!" Hiccup yelps. The Nightmare catches her and slams her underneath it, slicing her shoulder and barely skimming her throat.

Hiccup was terrified. She looked up at the Nightmare's eyes, but they're clouded with fear and anger. The Nightmare would have no qualms killing her. As a matter of fact, it was going to in a matter of seconds.

Hiccup felt she should have seen this coming. She should have, actually. But she hadn't, so knowing she was going to die by the hands of the creature she was trying to protect was all the more gut-wrenching.

**FFFWWWWWW_WOOOOOOOOUUSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH_**

"Night Fury! Get down!"

Hiccup automatically flinches and closes her eyes as the cage surrounding the ring is blasted open and smoke covers the area momentarily. Before she knows it, the Nightmare is no longer on her and Toothless is right in front of her.

He pounces, fighting the Nightmare with scorn. They roar and claw at each other, going for throats and trying to kill each other. It's so fast, Hiccup can barely focus on the black blur that is Toothless.

The Nightmare yields first. It walks away with a slight limp, growling irritatedly.

And then the Vikings are upon them.

Hiccup doesn't take the time to thank her best friend for saving her life. She runs towrds him and commences to push. "Okay Toothless, that's enough. Go! Get out of here!"

They close in, all with weapons at hand and scowls on their faces.

They were going to kill Toothless, and it was all her fault! "Go! Come on, Toothless, just leave. _Please!_" She pushes away and he moves. For a second, she hopes he finally got the idea, but it's all thrown into a ditch when he sweeps his tail across the floor, taking down three Vikings at once.

_"Night Fury!"_

_"Take it alive!"_

"Go go!" She yells now.

"Stoick, no," she hears Asher yell, sounding panicked and completely unlike himself. Hiccup turns automatically, and sees her father wielding an ax and stalking towards the dragon.

"Dad, no! He won't hurt you!"

Her father doesn't pause for a second, brooding menacingly and glaring at Toothless. The Vikings clear way for the chief, letting Stoick through in no time.

"No, stop! You're only making it worse," she yells.

Stoick pounces. Hiccup screams, horrified by the image of her father and best friend fighting each other. Similarly to the Nightmare and Toothless; They were going for the kill.

"Stop! No, dad! He won't- Toothless don't! Stop!" She yells fruitlessly, struggling to choose who to yell at. Neither stop to listen to her.

It should have been obvious to them that the Night Fury ended on top, beating even Stoick the Vast. She hadn't wanted to see the end of this fight, though. She'd wanted to be able to live with Toothless, happy and together and not lying.

Toothless took a familiar pause, vibrating slightly as blue gathered in his mouth, ready to fire.

Her dad... No, not her father, not her-

"_Nooo_!"

Finally, Toothless pauses. He glances at her, confused. _Why not kill a Viking? Vikings are bad_.

Because she was one? Because they_ all_ were. Because the Viking underneath him was her_ father_. Because everyone in this village, whether they accepted it or not, was her family? There wasn't one answer, but there was a solution.

She hesitated, opening her mouth to explain. Before she can say anything, a pair of arms grabs Toothless by the neck and slams him unto the ground, followed by various Vikings dog piling to keep him pinned. It takes many to do so.

"No!" Hiccup starts running, but another pair of arms - much thinner, but just as strong - grabs her and restrains her. "No! Please- just- just don't hurt him! Please don't hurt him!" She feels herself shake, and lets out another anguished cry as more villagers come to help tame the Night Fury.

_Idiots_. Even she couldn't do that. They had to befriend him, not kill, no. Toothless wasn't gonna die!

Hiccup fought harder against Asher, flinging herself forward. It was useless. Like her. Eventually, time passed and she numbed. The loud noise, the cries of both war and pain lessened and it was suddenly very quiet.

Her arm hurt. It took her a moment to realize why. Stoick had grabbed her and was currently dragging her away from the ring. She turned back to see Asher glancing from her to Toothless.

She was going to kill him if he left Toothless alone with those- those_ Vikings_!

Wisely, he stayed, throwing her one last glance, full of pain, distress and apology.

Stoick led her to the mead hall, where he flung her inside and shut the doors. They just bounced open again.

"I should have known," he muttered, begining to pace, "I should have seen the signs!"

"Dad."

"We had a deal!"

"I know! We did, but that was before- ugh! This is so messed up," Hiccup grabbed her bangs, wishing the pain would wake her up or...do _something_! No. Toothless was going to die and she was going to be exiled or killed and her father was so mad!

"So everything in the ring; a trick! A_ lie_!?"

"I screwed up. I wanted to tell you before- but take it out on me! Please don't take it out on Toothless!"

"The dragon!? That's what you care about? Not the people you almost killed!?"

"He was protecting me! He's not dangerous-"

"They've killed hundreds of us-"

"And we've killed_ thousands_ of them! They're not dangerous, they just defend themselves! They raid us because they_ have_ to. If they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves. There's something on their island, dad. It's like-"

"Island? You've been to their nest?"

He father approached her, and she'd never been more terrified on her life. Not when the Nightmare had chased her, neither the first nor the second. Not when she'd first met Toothless or when Dagur came over.

"Nest? Did I say nest-?"

"How did you find it!" The chief growled at her, and she could not recall a day in her childhood where she'd been growled at by him without being at least a few yards away.

"I didn't find it," she squealed, hoping to calm down the man in front of her, "Toothless did. Only a dragon can find it."

A glint passed through Stoick's and Hiccup knew she'd made a terrible mistake. What had she said? 'Toothless did. Only a dragon-'

"No! Oh, no no. Dad, don't-" He walked away, ignoring her cries. "Dad. It's not what you think. You've never faced anything like it. I can promise you won't survive this!"

He was almost to the door, and she knew it was probably useless. _(Like her)_ But more than Toothless was in danger. All the Vikings, her father, best friend-

The despair grew inside her, and she clung to it to yell out the one frustration that had been bothering her since she was eight. She grabbed his arm and yelled.

"Dad. No! For_ once in your life_ would you please just_ listen to me_!"

One second she was hanging on to his arm, grasping with all her strength. The next she was on the ground, slammed against her side.

She looked up at Stoick, eyes wide and perplexed.

Her dad had never hurt her before. Never raised a hand or pushed her away (in the physical sense, that is).

But how was this her dad? It wasn't. This was Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk. Chief first, father second. She should've known (she_ already_ knew!) but it hurt.

The chief walked away, slamming the door again. Darkness flooded the room, leaving Hiccup startled on the ground. Alone.

She'd stopped realizing how alone she was with Toothless around until then. Hiccup wanted to cry.

* * *

Toothless lay asleep, content with life as it was. Hiccup was nice and safe, ready to face another dragon in her 'training' no doubt. Asher was apparently a good enough guy, who meant no real harm (anymore, anyway). He could hear the cheering Vikings from all the way over here! All for Hiccup.

Hopefully, that would get her back on track. She was special, she should know.

The cheering became a quiet whisper that eventually faded. Hiccup must have beat the dragon already. She'd be arriving soon.

Toothless smiled to himself, shifting to accommodate for when Hiccup came to ride him. The saddle on top of him was taking the sun's heat away from him, but was warm by itself, so it caused him no discomfort.

A loud sound of two metal objects colliding broke the silence in the area Hiccup was in. Toothless ignored it for a second until the scream of a familiar voice broke through the air, causing his heart to spike.

'_STOP THE FIGHT!'_

**PA**AN_GG-**G-g**-g-g-g**g!**_

_'AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!'_

"Hiccup?" He asked himself, still drowsy. Hiccup was still battling the dragon then... Hiccup was still- _HICCUP!_

Toothless rose immediately, ears twitching with every noise that managed to make it's way from wherever Hiccup was to the cove. "Hiccup!"

For a moment, he forgot the reason he'd stayed in the cove in the first place. It didn't matter in the end. He jumped up the cove wall and climbed.

His footing was lost various times, the same way it had been when he'd first gotten stuck, but this was Hiccup at risk! He couldn't lose her.

"Come _on_!" His paw reached the top of the cove for the first time. He wasn't going to let it go to waste, so he dug his claws into the ground and jumped.

Running had never been his thing, and he could see why it was so unappealing. The racing heart, terror seeping through his veins and fear of not reaching his destination on time.

A crash resounds and the sound of many object falling reaches his ears. The crowd is panicking. The noises getting louder. Hiccup's loud steps and cries for help increasing in volume.

He growled, speeding up the process with a jump. It seemed to work, and so he arrived at Hiccup's village in no time. It took too long.

'_Aaah_!'

Toothless took one last jump and lifted his wings. There was one last obstacle to shoot down, so he blasted it and swooped in.

Hiccup was under his claws, that _wretched son of a leech_! Toothless struck the dragon in the side, not wasting a second to go for the throat. They brawled fiercely, but the other was no match for him.

"And stay away from her," he growled as the enemy limped away.

"It looks disgusting anyway," the other commented. Toothless snarled for good measure.

Hiccup was immediately at his side, pushing him away and trying to convince him of leaving.

_Silly_. They were still surrounded. By Vikings no less.

Toothless took no heed to Hiccup's senseless talk, instead retalliating against the Vikings' useless attacks. He had to protect her. They had to get away, but first he had to clear the Vikings. Should they take the annoying brat, Asher?

It wasn't until the biggest Viking of all, clearly the Alpha, appeared that Toothless halted his thoughts about leaving the wretched island.

The Viking went after him, and Toothless didn't hesitate to attack. This one was stronger, but nothing the dragon couldn't take on. It wasn't long before Toothless finally had the Viking Alpha pinned underneath his body. The ruthless alpha struggled, refusing to go down without a fight.

Toothless almost felt smug, opening his mouth wide for one of his strongest blasts. This would teach it to mess with Hiccup.

A small familiar voice that had mostly been background so far cried out in distress, making the dragon pause. "No!"

Toothless recognized Hiccup's voice, and didn't like how anguished it sounded. Did she not want the alpha Viking dead? Was she supporting Viking? Why...why would his human...

Toothless had almost no time to ponder over the sudden betrayal, for a Viking - those damn beings - had taken his pause as an opportunity to take him down. He struggled, of course. Hiccup was still there, being held back by...the Asher fellow! What was going on!?

_Why!?_

Toothless' struggles were feeble under the mass of Vikings, and he was eventually caged. By that time, the alpha Viking had already taken Hiccup away. Toothless tried to get away, nonetheless.

Then he saw the traitor. Asher made his appearance as the other Vikings left. He was one of them, so he had no other choice but to growl.

Asher looked guilty under the angry scrutiny. He looked Toothless in the eye, shifting uncomfortably but letting his own displeasure be known. Toothless felt no pity for the _Viking_.

'Her father took her,' he finally said, glancing to the side. Toothless paused.

_Father?_

'That's gotta be really harsh, for both of them. Him finding out her daughter's been training a dragon. A_ Night Fury_, of all dragons. And now Hiccup's gotta face her father's wrath. Makes you wonder what it's like to be the daughter of Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk, huh?'

The boy was making absolutely no sense.

All of those sentences would imply Hiccup was the daughter of the alpha. That would imply that the alpha _chief_ had taken his daughter away, not just Hiccup. He'd taken his daughter, Hiccup. Hiccup, the daughter of a Viking. Hiccup the Viking.

It should have made sense. What else would a human be doing on an island governed by Vikings? Toothless figured he should have known, and maybe he had. Subconsciously, maybe he'd always known Hiccup was a Viking.

Bits and pieces of conversations Hiccup had held should have hinted at this. Toothless chose to ignore them.

So...Hiccup was a Viking. Toothless forgot about Asher and let the fellow take his leave, processing the unintentional news.

Toothless and Hiccup. Hiccup and Toothless. Dragon and Rider, Rider and Dragon. The girl and the dragon. The _Viking_ and the Night Fury.

Somehow, the words still fit together perfectly.

Toothless moaned. "Hic_cup_..." He still wanted to see her.

* * *

**And, the next chapter was the end of my two day miracle. After that, I just gave and decided I'd write the ending later. Later is still yet to come...So, anyone listened to 'Welcome to Night Vale' lately? Best friggin thing evaaaaaahhhh! But Carlos is a jackass and I love cecilos but totally despise Carlos. Friggin liar...professor...mutter mutter...scientist...mutter...sonova...mutter...mtter...Cecil should break up...muttergrowl...BARK! Cecil will be mine, goddammit! I love his voice, why must you be gayyyyyy!**

**Nev mind, wrong fandom. So, chapter name? It's all ogre now! No, okay, _no_...**

**Chappie name: Chappie! I wanna see that mo- fffuuuuuuuuu!**

**Okay, bye. I'll come up with it later...**

**SeeyaIguess...**


	13. Oh Yes She Did!

The Vikings set out to the docks the very next morning. Stoick wasted no time at all to tell the rest of the village that they were going on a voyage.

Hiccup stood at the side of a cliff, watching the men and women prepare for their doom. Toothless was at the main ship, along with her fathe-Stoick, tied and muzzled like a wild animal. Her heart broke at the thought.

This was all her fault. Not only was Toothless getting harassed, but all those Vikings would die the moment they set foot on the island. If not for the thousands of dragons, than queen dragon would get to them. The Red Death.

She caught the chief's eyes for a second. In that second, she tried to warn him of the dangers and perils he would encounter if he decided to go through with this. She tried to display her own regret and remorse.

The second was up before she knew it, and Stoick barked another order to the crowd.

By the time the sun began to lower, the ships were gone and Hiccup was left staring at an empty horizon. She could do nothing.

Asher sneaked up behind her, but Hiccup didn't react to his sudden voice. "It's a mess," he said, as if it weren't obvious to her already.

Hiccup ignored him. Toothless was still out there, helpless. Stupid Vikings. What was wrong with them?

"You must feel pretty bad," he continued casually, "You lost everything. You father, your tribe, even your dragon."

Hiccup shouldn't have honored those words with a response, but she did. "Thank you, for summing that up," she said. Those were only the words she'd been repeating to herself continuously when the ships took off. Why not have them be said out loud to tear her apart some more?

She continued, the what-if scenarios she'd been pondering over escaping her lips. "Why couldn't I have killed that dragon when I found him in the woods?" she sighed, "It would have been better. For everyone."

"That would have been easier," Asher agreed. "Any other Viking would have done it. Why didn't you?" It was a rhetorical question that Hiccup had been asking herself various times.

"Why _didn't_ you?" Asher asked again. Not rhetorical. A real question, wanting a real answer. Hiccup had never actually taken the time to _answer_ the question.

"I don't know," Hiccup says. "I couldn't."

"That's not an answer."

Of course she knew that was not an answer! It meant she didn't know! She had no answer to give! "Why is this so important to you all of a sudden," Hiccup asked him, throwing Asher an irate look.

"Because I want to remember what you say. Right here, right now." _Why?_

"For the love of- I was a coward! I was weak!" Is that what he wanted to hear? "I wouldn't kill a dragon!"

"You said 'wouldn't' that time," Asher was quick to point out.

"Whatever," Hiccup almost yelled, "I wouldn't! Three hundred years and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon." She was the only Viking not willing to kill a dragon. A shame to her tribe.

Asher paused. "First to ride, though," he said, as if it were much to brag about. "So..."

It took Hiccup a second to realize it _was_ plenty to brag about, and she was proud of it. The thought calmed her down. She seeked a response, a real answer, for Asher's original question. Why_ hadn't_ she killed Toothless?

"I wouldn't kill him because he looked as frightened as I was," she said, summing up the many words and afterthoughts into a single thought for Asher's sake. "I looked at him, and I saw myself." The same way Toothless had. Toothless had not killed her for the very same reason, she was sure.

"I bet he's real frightened now," Asher taunted, looking at the sea. The horizon continued to stay clear. The ships hadn't left too long ago. There was till plenty of time to catch up. If only she had Toothless. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Probably something stupid," Hiccup shrugged. It was her specialty, was it not? It never worked out, but still her specialty.

"Good. But you've already done that?" Then again, training Toothless to fly again wasn't stupid. Neither had it been to chase Asher after he'd gone to tattle on her. Those had been leaning more the the crazy side, standing on a fine line.

_Oh._

"Then something crazy," Hiccup said, jumping slightly. She ran ahead, heading to the arena that held five dragons. Four of which she could ride.

Hiccup didn't catch what Asher said after she left, but she had a feeling he was pleased.

* * *

_A Night Fury held down by rope._

_A plan to find the nest and take it._

_The best friend ponders the sanity of the plan._

_The brooding chief resents the dragon._

_Helheim's gate is full of fog, but the Night Fury knows the way._

_Off to the nest they go._

* * *

Asher led the teenagers to the arena, where Hiccup was. No doubt. They found Hiccup un-bolting the Monstrous Nightmare's cage.

Asher took no time to figure out her clever little scheme. Take a dragon and save Toothless, as well as the Vikings (probably). However, he doubted a single dragon could take on the queen. Much less a Nightmare - if a Night Fury couldn't...

Which explained the teenagers behind him. It was surprising how agreeable they were when Asher presented to them the idea of riding a dragon, but better than he could've hoped. The twins were the first to jump in.

Fishlegs, always a curious mind, joined hesitantly and Snotlout agreed ecstatically once he realized he was the only one left to join.

"If you're planning on getting eaten, I'd take the Gronckle." Which made no sense, because Gronckles only ate rocks.

"Um..."

Hiccup turned around in surprise.

Ruffnut stepped up, leaning into Hiccup threateningly. "You were wise to seek help from the world's deadliest weapon. I mean me."

"I love this plan," Snotlout called out from behind.

"I didn't-"

Tuffnut bumped his sister out of the way, equally close. Asher gripped his ax in annoyance. "You're crazy," he whispered. "I like it..."

Asher didn't hesitate in throwing the boy away and feigning an innocent smile. "So," he let out a satisfied breath, "What_ is_ the plan?"

Hiccup's blush subsided and she smiled hesitatingly to the group of teenagers surrounding her.

* * *

She chose to partner the Nightmare and Snotlout together. Surely they'd get along...ahem, anyways...

Hiccup didn't let herself be afraid of the giant dragon. She treated it like any other dragon, calm and collected. Letting fear be the only reason for her to befriend a dragon wasn't going to work. Sure it helped with Toothless, but she'd actually meant it that time. Toothless had let her go.

The Nightmare had to be stopped both times.

Oh no, was she getting scared again?

_Calm. Stay calm. Calm, cool, collected._ _Nobody's going to scare him this time. This Nightmare will be a piece of cake._

Hiccup basked in the glory of having successfully tamed the Nightmare by leaving Snotlout alone with it and running to get some rope.

"Whoa! Where are you going!?"

"You're going to need something to hold on to," she replied, grinning. She looked back to see everyone looking at her. Both the Vikings and the dragons. Under their eyes, she felt her self-esteem go up. No more Hiccup the Useless, even as a dragon rider rather than a dragon fighter.

She also concluded Asher would look better on a Nadder, Fishlegs was already in love with the Gronckle and she should have realized the Zippleback and twins were just meant to be.

* * *

**Bluuuuuuuuuh~~ **

**I have no excuse. I've been getting attached to both Homestuck and Welcome to Night Vale, so maybe those are an excuse all on their own? So excited! Homestuck comes out of its hiatus on the 13th and WTNV updates on the 15th, not to mention the novel comes out near my birthday and and-**

**Still no excuse, forgive me -_-**

**Also...chapter name!**

**ChapName: Oh Yes She Did! Why? I don't even know anymore! Hiccup rode a dragon and now she's planning to train more to save it and almost every other dragon! I feel this should be a "Oh no she didn't" moment, but meh.**

**Also, It's Saturday! So, I'm Not Good With Rules, Sue Me. I'll Update Whenever I Want :]**


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